PARIS, 1784, POSSIBLY BY PIERRE DEBREE; CHARGE AND DECHARGE MARKS OF JEAN-FRANCOIS KALENDRIN; A LATER FRENCH CONTROL MARK FOR IMPORTED IN USE FROM 1819-1838; A FRENCH MARK FOR SMALL ITEM IN USE FROM 10 MAY-1 OCTOBER 1838; BELGIAN IMPORT CONTROL MARK IN USE FROM 1831 TO 1868

A similar agate box carved in the form of a shell and marked for Louis Pin, Paris, 1748, is illustrated in A. Kenneth Snowman, Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Europe, London, 1966, pl. 218, which notes that the design likely derives from a late 17th century German box illustrated in J.L. Sponsel, Catalogue of the Green Vaults Museum in Dresden, Leipzig, 1900, vol. III, no.7, pl. 34.