A Two-Coloured Gold and Enamel Snuff Box, Gebrüder Toussaint, Hanau, Circa 1805

On the occasion of a journey to Hanau in 1814, the famous German polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) described the Brothers Toussaint as one of the most successful firms of the early nineteenth century. According to his report, ‘Hanau workmen enjoy a very favourable reputation, and are in request everywhere. The present most famous firms – the Brothers Toussaint, Souchai, as well as Collin, Bury, Müller and Jünger – not only uphold the reputation of their works, but strive continually to bring their productions to a greater degree of perfection.’ (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Aus einer Reise and Rhein, Main und Neckar, 1884, pp. 388–389).

The reputation that the eldest Toussaint brother of this generation (the sons of Charles (1720-1790) and Pierre-Etienne (1726-1806), better known as 'Les Freres Toussaint') enjoyed in Hanau and beyond must have been significant: Ludwig Otto Toussaint was one of the six citizens taken hostage in 1813 at the command of Emperor Napoleon in order to guarantee the town of Hanau’s good conduct during the French occupation. His house, located on the marketplace, was an important centre for artistic exchange in the early nineteenth century. Furthermore his collection of old master paintings – among them works by Lucas Cranach and Albrecht Dürer – may be considered as an indicator of both his own prosperity and the financial success of the firm (Alexandra Starp, 'Grosse Bijouterie in Hanau in the early 19th century', in Haydn Williams, 19th-century Snuff Boxes: The David and Mikhail Iakobachvili Collection, vol II, London, 2025, p. 218).