Lot 32
  • 32

A commemorative gold and enamel double portrait snuff box, maker's mark IB probably for James Bellis, London, 1767

Estimate
30,000 - 50,000 GBP
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Description

  • A commemorative gold and enamel double portrait snuff box, maker's mark IB probably for James Bellis, London, 1767
  • enamel, gold, fishskin (case)
  • 6.5cm., 2 5/8 in. wide
oval, the lid set with an earlier glazed portrait of Sir Robert Rich, (1685-1768), 4th Baronet, of Roos (Rose) Hall, Suffolk, painted on enamel by Charles Boit, signed 'Boit p.', circa 1710-15, the interior of the lid with an earlier portrait of his wife, Elizabeth Griffith (died 1773), by Christian Frederich Zincke, circa 1710 -15, chased overall with military trophies within key fret over a hatched ground, maker's mark IB in a cut-cornered rectangle, London standard marks and date letter, in contemporary plush-lined fishskin case

Provenance

Sir Robert Rich, 5th Bt. (1685-1768);
his daughter, Lady Lyttelton (c.1716-1795);
her niece, Mary Frances, Lady Rich (1755-1833);
Sir Charles Henry Rich, 2nd Bt.;
thence by descent until recently

Condition

overall very good condition, crisp engraving and fine enamel painting.
"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."

Catalogue Note

Sir Robert Rich, 4th Bt. was descended from the powerful family of Rich, earls of Warwick and Holland, going back to Richard Rich (1496/7-1567), Lord Chancellor during the reign of Edward VI. Sir Robert was senior of four pages of honour to William III between 1700 and 1702 and then joined the Duke of Marlborough's army, having succeeded to the baronetcy in 1706. Before reaching twenty, he was twice wounded, first at Schellenberg and then at Blenheim in 1704, which is probably where he lost his eye. His bravery on the battlefield brought him successive promotions but also led to him fighting a duel, being taken prisoner in Gibraltar and raising a regiment to combat the threat from the Jacobite rising in 1715. All these adventures were regularly recounted in the London Gazette of the day. In 1740, he was appointed for life governor of the Chelsea Hospital which still owns his portrait. He  was raised to Field Marshal in 1757 and died on 1 February 1768, aged eighty-two. 
 
In 1710, Robert married Elizabeth Griffith (died 1773) daughter of Col. Edward Griffith, one of the Clerks of the Board of Green Cloth and Secretary to Prince George of Denmark, the Prince Consort. Their miniature portraits of were executed by leading artists of the day. The portrait of Sir Robert was executed by the Swedish painter Charles Boit (1662-1727), probably after the Blenheim victory. Boit was a colourful character, travelling between England, Holland, Germany and Austria, whose talents as a painter on enamel brought him the favours of European royal courts - a large enamel plaque showing Queen Anne and Prince George is in the Royal Collection and mentioned by Horace Walpole who remarks that Boit’s prices 'are not to believed' (Walpole, Anecdotes of Painting in England, 1762, p. 634). Christian Frederick Zincke (1683/5-1767), author of the enamel portrait of Lady Rich, was also much admired by his contemporaries. This portrait was probably executed around their wedding date, 1710.

Sir Robert and Lady Elizabeth had three sons and one daughter, also Elizabeth. Their eldest son, Robert Rich, became 5th Baronet (1717- 1785), married Mary Ludlow, and had an only daughter, Mary Frances.  Mary Frances Rich married on 4 January 1784, the Reverend Charles Bostock, of Shirley House, Hampshire, who assumed by sign-manual, the arms and surname of Rich, being created a Baronet in 1791. Mary Frances, Lady Rich,  inherited all her father’s estate which was then passed onto her son, Sir Charles Henry Rich, 2nd Bt.

The will of Sir Robert, 5th Bt., was signed 31 October 1767 and speedily proved (with two codicils dated 7 December 1767 and 1 February 1768, the date of his death) on 7 February 1768. In the will Sir Robert leaves to his only daughter, Lady Lyttelton, ‘her mother’s Picture, to be taken out of my Snuff Box inlayed with Gold' (PROB 11/936).  Elizabeth Rich had married, aged 33, as his second wife Baron Lyttelton of Frankley as his second wife, in 1749. Mrs Piozzi commented’ ‘Her indiscretion made an unhappy household, and she soon separated from her husband’. Lady Lyttelton was a talented pastellist and honorary exhibitor at the Royal Academy, also a close friend of the miniature painter Richard Cosway’s wife Maria, another female artist. Given the date of the present gold box (the date letter ran from April 1767 to April 1768), Lady Lyttelton was speedy in ordering her parents’ portraits to be set into a gold box. She herself died in 1795; the box is quite clearly described in her own will (PROB 11/1265 – signed July 1789, proved (with three codicils) 8 September 1795). She gives to her ‘Niece Frances Mary Bostock [her] best Diamond Necklace [&c. &c. and] An Oval Gold Snuff Box chased with Trophies with the pictures of my Father and Mother in Enamel’.

Mary Frances was even more detailed in her testimonary disposition of the box (PROB 11/1819). Her will was written in 1831 and proved on 19 July 1831. She left the box to her son Sir Charles Henry Rich, describing it as ‘my Gold Snuff Box with my Grandfather’s (the Field Marshall’s) Picture on the outside and my Grandmother’s Picture withinside’. The gift is for his life but must then be passed down very specifically to the eldest son in each generation – ‘the said snuff box shall not be sold or parted with in any way but always descend as an heirloom in my family’.

The maker's mark on this box is not recorded at Goldsmiths' Hall. There are two possible reasons, firstly that, although a goldworker's mark would normally be recorded in the Smallworkers' Register, it could have been recorded in the missing Largeworkers' Register (1758-1773). Secondly it is possible that the mark was never registered. In the list of goldsmiths drawn up by the parliamentary commission in 1773, James Bellis is the only smallworker with initials I or JB who was still in business and had previously entered a mark. He had been recorded as a goldsmith in 1749 in the Westminster Poll and then appears regularly in advertisements as 'goldsmith and jeweller' in the Public Advertiser, firstly at King Street, Covent Garden, then at 9 Pall Mall. He had entered maker’s marks from King Street in 1760 and 1764. Heal records him in Pall Mall from 1768-88 although the change of address was not noted, as required, at Goldsmiths’ Hall, showing that Bellis was, at the very least, careless of official requirements. His death was announced in The Gentleman’s Magazine on 1 November 1788 :' at his house at Hatfield Woodside [Hertfordshire], of an asthmatic complaint, Mr Bellis, formerly a jeweller and toyman in Pall Mall. His wife died in April last.' For further details on Bellis’s life and career, see Vanessa Brett, Bertrand’s Toyshop in Bath, Luxury Retailing 1685-1765, Wetherby, 2014, pp. 214/5.