The present box is hallmarked with the earliest set of marks recorded for Les Freres Toussaint. It was only a few years ago that the brothers Charles (1720-1790) and Pierre-Etienne Toussaint (1726-1803/1806) were discovered as the leading 18th century bijoutiers and gold box makers in Hanau in South Germany. Of Huguenot descent, the brothers had arrived in Hanau from Berlin in 1752. By 1762, they employed several German, Genevois and other foreign craftsmen, making Hanau an important centre for Galanteriewaren (small precious objects with a function) in the late 18th and early 19th century. A number of elaborately chased multicoloured gold boxes from the 1760s, stylistically imitating the work of Parisian goldsmiths of the period, are to be found in museum collections, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, all featuring the maker’s mark and a mark imitating the Paris charge mark of Eloi Brichard, 1756-62 (Lorenz Seelig, Eighteenth century Hanau gold boxes, Silver Society of Canada Journal, 2015, vol. 18, p. 36-37. It is worth comparing the present lot to a multicoloured gold example with the same set of marks, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, (accession no. 48.187.422), with regards to the bold chasing and the proportions, but especially the figures and faces on the base of that box, both pointing towards an early date of manufacture in the mid-1760s. Interestingly, a comparison of the present lot to a somewhat similar jewelled gold and enamel snuff box, dated circa five to ten years earlier and marked for the Huguenot goldsmith Daniel Baudesson (1716–1785), who was based in Berlin and worked for Frederick the Great, shows the particularities of German chasing around 1760s. The slightly heavier, angular and perhaps more bold chasing than one would find in other centres of production at the time, combined with a true tour de force of gold-working - also featuring stipple-engraving, finely matted corners and engine-turned backgrounds within vignettes in raised scrollwork - make the present lot a most suitable object of presentation from a duke and military leader, but also the epitome of luxurious Hanau bijouterie in its early stages.

Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel (1721-1792; fig. 1), led an Anglo-German army which successfully repelled French attempts in Western Germany to occupy Hanover during the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). He was awarded the Order of the Garter following his victory at the battle of Minden in 1759. Born in Wolfenbüttel in 1721, he had joined the Prussian army as a colonel in 1740 and had taken command of Frederick the Greats Leibgarde (‘bodyguard’) battalion following the death of the former commander. Ferdinand distinguished himself on many other occasions, such as during the Silesian War, and was also a freemason, first in Berlin and then in Breslau. Beyond military successes, the Duke also remained close friends with Frederick the Great (1712-1786), King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, throughout his life.