A Doccia porcelain rose gold-mounted snuff box, circa 1760

Alfred Joseph (1880-1964) Collection, no. 1679;

Helmut Joseph (1918-2002) Collection;

The Helmut Joseph Collection of Important Snuff Boxes, Bonhams, London, 5 July 2011, lot 57.

Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, 1972-2003;

London, Gilbert Collection, Somerset House, 2003-2008;

Barnard Castle, County Durham, The Bowes Museum, 2008-2010.

B. Beaucamp-Markowsky, Boîtes en Porcelaine des manufactures européennes au 18e siècle, Fribourg, 1985, p. 524, cat. no. 481;

B. Beaucamp-Markowsky, Collection of 18th Century Porcelain Boxes on loan to the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, 1988, p. 174, cat. no. 99;

G. de Girolamo, Amici di Doccia - Quaderni XVI, 2023, pp. 46, 87-88, no. 57.

The present snuff box and its decoration is discussed by Giovanni de Girolamo in the most recent publication of the Amici di Doccia. The author notes that the vignette scenes and the figures on the lid derive from a large and successful series of etchings depicting the allegories of the seasons and the elements, based on designs by Jacopo Amigoni (1682-1752). For example, the figures seen on the front of the box derive from the allegory of Winter from the Four Seasons series; the figures on the verso come from an allegory of Water, while the two larger figures on the lid derive from an allegory of Air.

A somewhat similar bust-length figure of a woman in pose can be seen on the interior of a snuff box from the Carlo Colli collection, Milan, attributed to the hand of Gioacchino Rigacci, illustrated in A. Biancalana, Porcellane Ginori a Doccia, La Stanza delle Meraviglie di Carlo Colli, Milan, 2023, p. 491, cat. no. 123; and in the same collection a further snuff box with a bust-length female figure on the exterior, p. 489. cat. no. 122.