BY ALEXANDER JAMES STRACHAN (FL. 1799-1850), LONDON, 1836

Alexander Strachan seems to have used this style of enamelled design featuring little animals, birds and plants in the 1830s. Thus a very similar Regency snuff-box on blue enamelled ground dated 1835 was sold at Christie's, London, 7 July 2016, lot 227. Another gold and mother-of-pearl snuff-box attributed to Strachan is enamelled with parrots, flowers and a very similar central red squirrel and was sold Sotheby's, London, 10 December 1973, lot 92. Strachan supplied gold boxes to the Royal goldsmiths Rundell, Bridge and Rundell and Wakelin and Garrard. He was referred to as the 'Paul Storr of gold boxes' by Arthur Grimwade, London Goldsmiths, 1697-1837: Their Marks and Lives, London, 1976, pp. 672-73.