AN IMPERIAL RUSSIAN JEWELLED ENAMEL AND VARI-COLOUR GOLD PRESENTATION SNUFF-BOX

Details
AN IMPERIAL RUSSIAN JEWELLED ENAMEL AND VARI-COLOUR GOLD PRESENTATION SNUFF-BOX
BY JOHANN WILHELM KEIBEL, MARKED AND SIGNED, SAINT-PETERSBURG, CIRCA 1840, ASSAY MASTER DMITRII ILYICH TWERSKOI 1834-1850
Rectangular box, the lid centred by an oval guilloché panel enamelled in translucent blue and applied with the crowned cypher of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia in rose-cut diamonds, bordered by silver-mounted diamonds, set on a matted ground chased with scrolls and foliage in three-colour gold and applied with six diamonds, the sides and base decorated with panels of engine-turning framed by scrolls and flowersprays in three-colour gold
89mm. (3½in.) high

Lot Essay

Johann Wilhelm Keibel (1788-1862) was the son and apprentice of the famous goldsmith Otto Samuel Keibel. After his father's death in 1809, he adopted the same mark and became master in 1812. In 1828, he reworked the Imperial Russian Crown for the coronation of Tsar Nicholas I. Keibel was the most important workshop making gold boxes in Russia in the first half of the 19th Century, but after the death of Johann Wilhelm Keibel, the firm specialised in the production of insignia until 1917. For another gold box by Keibel, see lot 257.

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