A three-colour gold and enamel snuff box, Charles Colins & Söhne, Hanau, circa 1840

Recent research suggests that exchange and collaboration between Hanau and Geneva may have taken place to an even larger extent than previously assumed, both on a personal level – members of Hanau families marrying into families based in Geneva and vice versa (Julia Clarke, Swiss Snuff Boxes 1785-1835, in: Haydn Williams, Enamels of the World 1700-2000, The Khalili Collections, London, 2009, p. 298) - but also on a purely economic scale. Hanau had established a system of ‘Fabriken’, very similar to the Geneva 'Fabrique', which was essentially a network of goldsmiths, engine-turners, casemakers, watchmakers and enamellers (see Julia Clarke, 'The Geneva Fabrique: Watch case makers to enamel painters', in: The Majesty of the Chinese Market Watch, Ian White and Julia Clarke, London, 2019), to the extent that goldsmiths or gold workers would equally be called ‘Fabrikant’ in Hanau (Lorenz Caspari, Die Entwicklung des Hanauer Edelmetallgewerbes von seiner Entstehung im Jahre 1597 bis zum Jahre 1873, Freiburg, 1916, p. 127). As a result, there are a number of Hanau gold boxes inset with Genevois enamel plaques, such as the present example, demonstrating the cultural exchange between the two main centres of production at the time.