This sale highlights French works of the Ancien Régime. Gold boxes of the Louis XV period include precious tabatières by the celebrated court goldsmiths Hardivilliers, Delafons and Ducrollay.
Although French works form the nucleus of this part of the Dreesmann collection, gold boxes, objects of vertu and miniatures from other European artistic centers are also represented.
Two Swiss articulated, pearl-set and enameled gold automata of the early 19th century shaped as a mouse and a lizard promise to spark fierce auction bidding.
Of German origin is a hard-stone bonbonnière by the Dresden court goldsmith Johann Christian Neuber featuring a mosaic of minute plaques of 117 various hard-stones. Also of Saxon origin is a rare triple snuffbox of Meissen porcelain painted with commedia dell'arte subjects.
Portrait miniature artists active in the late 18th century are strongly represented such as the celebrated miniaturists Jean-Baptiste-Jacques Augustin and John Smart. The collection contains two rare signed and dated Dutch pieces by Pierre Le Sage, court painter to the last Stadhouder William V, Prince of Orange-Nassau.
