A four-colour gold snuff box, Les Frères Toussaint, Hanau, circa 1760/65

Property from an important European private collection

 A four-colour gold snuff box, Les Frères Toussaint, Hanau, circa 1760/65

rectangular, the lid and base opulently chased with rustic scenes of shepherds or a young boy drinking from a fountain with his resting goats beside him, in raised coloured golds, in a classical village landscape by a river flanked by trees, on a brick wall-effect engraved ground, within a shaped scrollwork frame around stylised silvery shells, on a highly polished gold ground framed by further chased and engraved borders, the sides chased with fruit and gardening or agricultural trophies, the angles decorated with canted corners centred with rose gold zig zag bands and surmounted with two-coloured gold Corinthian capitals, the interior set with a gouache portrait of Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, German school, circa 1760, wearing the British sash and Order of the Garter, rubbed French prestige marks including charge mark of Eloi Brichard,

8.2cm., 3¼in. wide