MAKER'S MARK FJ INCUSE WITH LAUREL ABOVE, POSSIBLY FOR FRERES JORDAN (CIRCA 1790-1820), BERLIN OR HANAU, CIRCA 1820, THE FLANGE STRUCK ON THE RIGHT-HAND SIDE WITH INVENTORY NUMBER 6549, THE COVER FURTHER STRUCK WITH A CROSSED S, THE BASE WITH A SUNRAY

It has been suggested that boxes bearing the marks FJ - with laurel above, with or without a sunray mark and a crossed-S mark, previously attributed to François Joanin, Geneva, are the work of Huguenot goldsmiths who flourished in the Rhineland in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, most notably in Hanau and Berlin. Characterized with the same shallow construction, canted corners and style of decoration and bearing an inventory number struck on the right-hand rim of the cover their production seems to date from circa 1790 to circa 1820. Several boxes similar to the present example are illustrated in the essay Swiss Snuff-Boxes 1785-1835 written by J. Clarke, in H. Williams, ed. Enamels of the World 1700-2000 The Khalili Collections, London, 2009, pp. 293-305.