A SWISS JEWELLED ENAMELLED GOLD PRESENTATION SNUFF-BOX FOR THE EASTERN MARKET
THE PROPERTY OF A EUROPEAN GENTLEMAN
A SWISS JEWELLED ENAMELLED GOLD PRESENTATION SNUFF-BOX FOR THE EASTERN MARKET

GENEVA, CIRCA 1830, THE FLANGE STRUCK WITH INVENTORY NUMBER 987 AND WITH THE POST-1819 PARISIAN IMPORT MARK FOR GOLD AND THE PARISIAN GUARANTEE MARK FOR GOLD 1819-1838

Details
A SWISS JEWELLED ENAMELLED GOLD PRESENTATION SNUFF-BOX FOR THE EASTERN MARKET
GENEVA, CIRCA 1830, THE FLANGE STRUCK WITH INVENTORY NUMBER 987 AND WITH THE POST-1819 PARISIAN IMPORT MARK FOR GOLD AND THE PARISIAN GUARANTEE MARK FOR GOLD 1819-1838
cartouche-shaped box, the lobed sides and base centred with shaped reserves enamelled with colourful floral displays within vari-colour enamelled taille d'épargne floral borders, the interior of cover centred with a shaped reserve enamelled with a view of the Bosphorous within similar floral border, the cover applied with a shaped red guilloché enamel plaque with diamond-set initials for Mehmet Ali of Egypt (1769-1849) self-declared Khedive of Egypt and Sudan 1805-1848, within paste-studded frame, further applied with scrolling paste-studded foliage on a blue enamel ground, scalloped flange, with original tooled red leather case with handwritten serial numbers which read 987 and 24 86536, with original accompanying presentation letter


3? in. (80 mm.) wide
The accompanying presentation letter to Adrien-Louis Cochelet when translated from the original French reads:
Dear Mr the counselor,
Although his royal highness the vice king already told you, personally, his feelings in these circumstances of your departure to Europe, I have been asked, Mr the counselor, to let you know as the same time, his regrets and his satisfaction for all the franchise and the kindness you have managed with the official and peculiar relationships in this country.

His highness asked me to offer you on his behalf this small enameled gold snuff box ornated with diamonds with a cachemire shawl for your sweet and respectable wife. The snuff box is applied with his Highness cypher.
These items will be bring to you by the same porter as the one who brought you this message.
Sincerely Yours, Mr the counselor

Provenance
Presented to Adrien-Louis Cochelet in Alexandria 29 May 1841.
Thence by family descent to the present owner.

Brought to you by

Matilda Burn
Matilda Burn

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Lot Essay

Adrien-Louis Jules Cochelet, born in Charleville 29 April 1788, died in Paris 8 March 1858. He was appointed auditor to the Council of State on 12 February 1809. He left for Vienna in 1810, from where he was sent on a mission to Trieste, and was the appointed intendant/quartermaster in Gorizia, in the Austrian Fiuli. In 1812 he was attached to the stewardship of the army (Supply Corps) and was entrusted the stewardship of the government of Bialystok. After the retreat from Russia, he was appointed Deputy Special Commissioner of the 20th military division in Brussels in 1813. On 11 April 1814, he gave his support to the First Restauration and was named Knight of the Legion of Honor. In 1815, during the Hundred Days, Napoleon appointed him Prefect of the Meuse. He had to resign during the Second Restauration and travelled for nine years in Poland, Russia, Sweden, Denmark and Holland.
The government of King Charles X appointed him consular officer in Riga in 1825, consul in st. Louis Maragnan in Brazil and then in Tampico, Mexico in 1827. In 1829, he joined Mexico as manager of the French Legation. Sent to Lisbon by the Minister of the Foreign Affairs Victor de Broglie in 1832, Adrien-Louis Jules Cochelet obtained from King Michael I of Portugal the public apology required for having sunk two French ships. He was appointed consul general in the Principality of Wallachia and Moldavia in 1834.
From 1837 to 1841 he was consul general in Alexandria and had to investigate the dark Damascus affair which broke out in February 1840. He was recalled to France on 1 April 1841 by the Guizot ministry.
Louis-Philippe I appointed him councillor of State, where he served from 1841 until the 1848 French Revolution. He supported the presidential government of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, and was involved in several diplomatic missions. Back in the Council of State, he was appointed senator by imperial decree on 27 November 1857.
Commander of the Legion of Honor, Knight of the Iron Crown and knight of the Holy Sepulchre, he died in 1848 at his Paris home, 40 rue de la Victoire.
The term Khedive, from classical Persian, khodây, "lord" is equivalent to the English word "viceroy". It was first used without official recognition by Muhammad Ali Pasha the Wali of Egypt and Sudan, and vassal of the Ottoman Empire. The title was officially recognized by the Ottoman government in 1867, and used subsequently by Ismail Pasha, and his dynastic successors until 1914.
Following the French invasion of Egypt in 1798 and Napoleon's defeat of Egyptian forces, which consisted largely of the ruling Mamluk military caste, the Ottoman Empire dispatched troops from Rumelia, the Balkan provinces of the Ottoman Empire, under the command of Muhammad Ali, an Albanian commander of the Ottoman army, to restore the Empire's authority in what had hitherto been an Ottoman province. However, upon the French defeat and departure, Muhammad Ali seized control of the country, and declared himself ruler of Egypt, quickly consolidating an independent local powerbase. After repeated failed attempts to remove and kill him, in 1805, the Porte officially recognized Muhammad Ali as Pasha and Wali or Governor of Egypt. However, demonstrating his grander ambitions, he claimed for himself the higher title of Khedive or Viceroy, as did his successors, Ibrahim Pasha, Abbas I, and Sa'id I. Muhammad Ali transformed Egypt into a regional power which he saw as the natural successor to the decaying Ottoman Empire. He summed up his vision for Egypt in this way: "I am well aware that the (Ottoman) Empire is heading by the day toward destruction...On her ruins I will build a vast kingdom...up to the Euphrates and the Tigris."



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