A selection of works of art in the sale.	Exquisite gold boxes and portrait miniatures from courtly Europe. By including gold boxes, objects of vertu and miniatures, the Dreesmann Collection follows the spirit of such famous late 19th/early 20th century aficionados as J. Pierpont Morgan, C.H.T. Hawkins and Félix Doistau. The emphasis is on French works of the ancien régime. Gold boxes of the Louis XV period include precious tabatières by the most celebrated court goldsmiths, such as Noël Hardivilliers, Daniel Gouers and Jean Ducrollay, in various techniques including Japan-style lacquer, enameled gold and hardstones, all mounted in chased gold. The Louis XVI period is well represented with works by Adrien-Jean-Maximilien Vachette and Pierre-François Drais, the bijoutier du Roi who supplied gold boxes for King Louis XVI, for his youngest brother, the Comte d'Artois, and also for the ill-fated Comtesse du Barry. Portrait miniatures by artists active in late 18th century France are equally strongly represented. The celebrated miniaturists such as Marie-Anne Fragonard (née Gérard), Jean-Baptiste Augustin and Jean-Urbain Guérin are synonymous with the golden age of miniature painting in France. Louis Sicardi, Louis XVI's court miniaturist, painted the wide-eyed portrait of young Victorine de Chastenay-Lanty mounted in a sparkling diamond-studded frame. This striking miniature, like so many others from the Dreesmann Collection, was formerly part of the celebrated collection of J. Pierpont Morgan, sold at Christie's in 1935. Although French works form the nucleus of this part of the collection, other European artistic centers are also very well represented. An octagonal Florentine pietra dura snuffbox, inlaid with musical motifs in a painstakingly precise technique, is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the sale. Two Swiss articulated, pearl-set and enameled gold automata of the early 19th century, shaped as a mouse and a lizard, will attract particularly fierce bidding. The enormous popularity of Dresden hardstone boxes by the Saxon court goldsmith, Johann Christian Neuber, will be demonstrated once again with the magnificent circular Stein-kabinetts-Tabatière featuring a mosaic of minute plaques of 117 various hardstones, all engraved with numbers and described in a handwritten explanatory booklet. English objects of vertu include enameled étuis, a gold chatelaine with watch and a jeweled hardstone, gold and ormolu nécessaire casket with watch signed by James Cox, a major supplier of precious objects to many European and Oriental courts. English miniature portraits by the leading artists of the George III period include those by John Smart, Richard Cosway, George Engleheart and Andrew Plimer. One rarity is an enamel miniature of Mary Nesbitt, signed and dated 1783 by the Swiss-born artist, Johann Heinrich von Hurter, who worked almost exclusively for the English aristocracy, whose descendants keep their family miniatures. Last, but not least, the collection contains two rare signed and dated Dutch pieces by Pierre Le Sage, court painter to the last Stadhouder, Willem V, Prince of Orange-Nassau. Bodo Hofstetter is Specialist Head of the Portrait Miniature and Gold Boxes Departments. Based in Paris and London. Back to top