A two-colour gold snuff box, Les Frères Toussaint, Hanau, circa 1780

The partially rubbed crowned letter K and the rosette-shaped mark resembling the Paris petit charge mark for Julien Alaterre (1768-1774) are typical for gold boxes made by the Hanau bijoutiers Les Frères Toussaint during the last quarter of the 18^th century. The small shell mark in a place where the discharge mark would have been struck on Paris gold boxes, is equally common for Hanau gold boxes – this symbol indicates that the box has been made of 18 carat gold, while the small bird’s head mark can be found for objects in 19 carat gold (Lorenz Seelig, ‘Eighteenth century Hanau gold boxes’, Silver Society of Canada Journal, 2015, vol. 18, p. 36). It was only a few years ago that the brothers Charles (1720-1790) and Pierre-Etienne Toussaint (1726-1803/1806) were discovered as eminent bijoutiers and gold box makers in Hanau, a German city in close proximity to Frankfurt, and as such connected to the major decorative arts fairs at the time. Of Huguenot descent, the brothers had arrived in Hanau from Berlin in 1752. By 1762, they employed several German, Genevois and other foreign craftsmen, making Hanau an equally important centre for Galanteriewaren (small precious objects with a function) as Geneva in the late 18^th and early 19^th century.