A Two-Coloured Gold and Enamel Snuff Box, Gebrüder Toussaint, Hanau, Circa 1805
No reserve
Auction Closed
October 16, 06:35 PM GMT
Estimate
8,000 - 12,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
rectangular with cut corners, the lid applied with an oval enamel plaque painted with Cornelia and her jewels, attributed to Franz Linck, in a dark blue enamel frame, surrounded by chased scrollwork and acanthus, the sides and base similarly decorated around chevron engine-turned rose gold panels to centre, maker's mark GT incuse, Hanau town mark, 'Alaterre rosette', Hesse lion, the left rim numbered 359, later Austrian standard mark
Length 3 ⅝ in.
9.2 cm
A La Vieille Russie;
Sotheby's New York, 17 October 2008, lot 102
In 1801, the flourishing Hanau bijouterie business of Charles (1720–1790) and Pierre Etienne Toussaint (1726–1806) operating under the name of Les Frères Toussaint, was taken over by three brothers: Ludwig (Louis) Otto (1766–1825), Karl (Charles) Jacob (1768–1813) and Henry Philippe Daniel (1774–1840), sons of Pierre-Etienne Toussaint and Susanne Elisabeth Varlut. When the younger generation took control, the previous maker’s mark, L F over T (as seen on lot 412 in this sale), was replaced by two different marks. One of them can be seen on the present box: capital letters GT incuse. For many years, boxes struck with this mark were loosely attributed to Switzerland due to the absence of a more suitable alternative (A. 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).
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