'Le panier de pensées'. A gold and pietra dura snuff box, Johann Christian Neuber, Dresden, circa 1770-1775

oval, the lid, sides and base with clusters of wild pansies (viola tricolor) painted under crystal and nestling within curved, striped basketwork inlaid in banded agate and carnelian, the borders of bloodstone laurel knotted with white chalcedony ribbons, the mounts engraved with interlaced rosettes following the basket design, the bezel inscribed in script: Neuber à Dresde

Collection of Alexander Baring, 4^th Baron Ashburton (1835-1889);
sold by his daughter, Mrs Adam, Christie's, 7 July 1947, lot 130

Alexander Hugh Baring, 4^th Baron Ashburton was descended from a dynasty of bankers with a strong interest in the arts and collecting. Among the most notable collectors was his grandfather, created 1^st Baron Ashburton in 1835, who, in the words of Gustav Friedrich Waagen, united 'an ardent love for the fine arts with extraordinary wealth'. Since he 'expended very large sums in the gratification of this taste [he] succeeded in acquiring a choice collection of Dutch and Flemish pictures from the most celebrated cabinets in Europe' including many of the masterpieces formerly belonging to Prince Talleyrand. The pictures were divided between his country estate at The Grange, Northington, in Hampshire and Bath House, London, known later as the 'Palazzo di Piccadilly' when the collection was lavishly expanded by his heir, the 2^nd Lord Ashburton. The 4^th Baron's cousin, the banker and politician Thomas Baring, had also inherited the collecting gene together with a prodigious appetite for purchasing pictures (of his house a visitor noted 'the pictures and china are renowned; so is the cooking') – and he is the first member of the family with a recorded interest in gold boxes, having exhibited an impressive group at the Special Loan Exhibition at the South Kensington Museum in 1862 (nos. 4149-4167).
The Christie's 1947 sale of the 4^th Baron's gold box collection by his daughter Lilian (1874-1962), widow of Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Adam, was shared with a further group described as 'From the collection of the 3^rd Lord Ashburton, now sold by order of Frances, Lady Ashburton', showing that the 3^rd Baron (son of the 1^st; brother of the 2^nd and father of the 4^th Baron) had also been a gold box collector. Interestingly all three collections included snuff boxes either by or very probably by Neuber: Thomas Baring had lent three boxes attributable to Neuber to the 1862 Loan Exhibition, the 3^rd Baron owned one  and the 4^th Baron three including the present box, the only signed example, which sold for 651 guineas, another of deep oval form 'inlaid with Palladian vistas in perspective in various hardstones' which sold for the same price, and a third numbered specimen box attributed to Neuber but actually the work of C.G. Stiehl, then acquired by King Farouk (later sold Sotheby's, Palace Collections of Egypt, 10-17 March 1954, lot 705).

 

ASSOCIATED LITERATURE:

Walter Holzhausen, Johann Christian Neuber, Dresden, 1935;
Mrs Piozzi, Observations and reflections made in the course of a journey through France, Italy and Germany, London, 1789, vol. ii, p. 335;
Jean-Auguste Lehninger, Description de la ville de Dresde ... et de ses environs, Dresden, 1782, p. 337;
Charles Truman, The Gilbert Collection of Gold Boxes, vol.I, Los Angeles, 1991, p. 230;
Lorenz Seelig, Golddosen des 18. Jahrhunderts aus dem Besitz der Fürsten von Thurn und Taxis, Munich, 2007, p. 468;
Jean-Louis de Rambures, 'L'orfèvre minéralogiste Neuber', Connaissance des Arts, August 1970, pp. 40-47

Very good condition overall thanks to the 19th century travelling case. On the exterior there is very faint surface scratching also very minor imperfections to both gold and stone: these include a barely-perceptible loss of surface to the gold at the back by the hinge; a hair crack or surface scratch to the tip of one leaf on centre of lid; a below surface haircrack or scratch across petal of one pansy on lid. Apart from this the hinge-pin is slightly protruding at one end; there are three dimples to the interior side lining and the lid lining is not completely flat near the front edge. The colours of the flowers are brilliant but there has been some very slight paint discolouration in places particularly in one flower on the left side and one on the base. These small flaws do not detract from the overall beauty of this ravishing box.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

'Saxony is a very rich country in her own bosom it seems; the agates and jaspers produced here are excellent ', observed Mrs Piozzi, touring through Germany in 1789. Johann Christian Neuber (1736-1808), Court Jeweller in Dresden, specialised in creating Galantariewaren (useful but precious objects) which combined locally-mined hardstones with delicate goldwork in the Zellenmosaik (cell mosaic) technique to form pictures or patterns. The stones are inlaid with such skill that a finger run over the inlay appears to detect a smooth surface. According to his biographer, Walter Holzhausen, Neuber combined the two virtues common to the natives of the Erzgebirger: imagination and industry. The first inspired Neuber to see the artistic and commercial potential of using the many native stones of Saxony in his jewellery and boxes and was also responsible for the great variety of his works. The second produced the high quality of craftsmanship associated with the man and his large workshops.

 Neuber was apprenticed to Johann Friedrich Trechaon, a goldsmith of Swedish origin, in 1752 at the age of 17. In 1762 he became master goldsmith and burger of Dresden, succeeding Heinrich Taddel as director of the Grünes Gewölbe, and before 1775 he was also appointed Court Jeweller. It was from Taddel, his father-in-law and mentor, that Neuber acquired his knowledge of hardstones and how to work them. As Jean Auguste Lehninger, a contemporary visitor to Dresden, wrote in 1782: Chez le Sieur NEUBERT, Jouailler de la Cour, on trouve nombre de pierres rare et très belles, toutes sortes d'ouvrages de Jouaillerie et particulièrement un superbe assortiment de tabatières de pierres composées, espèce de mosaïque qui étonne le connoisseur et dont le Sr NEUBERT fait un commerce considerable.

Although commissioned to produce the occasional large-scale work such as the side table inlaid with 169 hardstones given by the city of Freiburg to Frederick Augustus III in 1769 and the table inlaid with 128 hardstones given by the Elector to the baron de Breteuil in 1780 to celebrate the peace of  Teschen, Neuber advertised a wide range of small objects made from inlaid hardstones including boxes for ladies and gentlemen, cane handles, watch cases, chatelaines, and jewellery such as bracelets and rings. His distinctive style was popular both at court and with the many visitors who flocked to Dresden as it rebuilt itself after the Seven Years' War. This distinctiveness was eventually counter-productive with a novelty-seeking public and by the end of the seventeen-eighties, his over-extended enterprise started to suffer increasingly severe financial problems. Despite holding a lottery in 1788 and other fundraising measures, business failure finally led to Neuber's retreat from Dresden in 1805 to the house of his son Christian Adolf in Eibenstock where he died on 2nd April 1808.

Neuber's leading speciality had been the Steinkabinetts-Tabatiere, a snuff box inlaid with as many as 140 different Saxon polished hardstone specimens, inlaid smoothly into gold cagework,  arranged artistically and numbered to correspond with an often-concealed explanatory booklet. Unnumbered boxes were also set with web or wave patterns of various stones usually centring on a local Meissen porcelain plaque, a miniature, a contemporary Roman micromosaic or a cameo. Although recognisably similar, each box is totally distinct. The present snuff box, for example, does not only display Neuber's skills in working hardstones and gold but is evidently intended to resemble a wicker basket filled with wild pansies. It is also signed on the front rim. The great majority of objects from the Neuber workshops are unsigned and unmarked although a very small number have Dresden hallmarks or, as in this example, Neuber's much-prized signature on the bezel.

The viola tricolor or Wild Pansy may be a relatively common European wildflower but its pretty triple face has long inspired poets and artists. In country parlance the flower has been given a host of nicknames including heartsease, love-in-idleness, kiss-me-quick,  Johnny-jump-up and kiss-behind-the-garden gate. Before the introduction of cultivated pansies in 1839, it was most widely known as 'pansy' and was thus associated with 'thought' – from the French pensée. This meant that it was eminently suitable for decorative use as its name spoke for itself. Before the age of reason, however, the plant was attributed with magical powers, most notably used by Shakespeare in Midsummer's Night Dream as the plant whose tincture caused such havoc –

 

'the bolt of cupid fell...upon a little western flower

Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound

And maidens call it love-in-idleness...

The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid

Will make a man or woman madly doat

Upon the next live creature that it sees'.