Gold Boxes, Fabergé and Objects of Vertu
Gold Boxes, Fabergé and Objects of Vertu
Property of an Italian private collection
A rare pearl-set gold and enamel snuff box, James Morisset, London, circa 1795
Auction Closed
May 25, 03:15 PM GMT
Estimate
50,000 - 70,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property of an Italian private collection
A rare pearl-set gold and enamel snuff box, James Morisset, London, circa 1795
oval, the lid centred with an enamel plaque painted with Coriolanus, after Bartolozzi's 1785 engraving of Angelika Kauffmann's illustration for Shakespeare's play, within later split pearl frame, surrounded by elaborate borders of gold scrollwork on a midnight blue enamel ground, alternating with pale blue and white enamel rosettes, the dark blue enamel sides further decorated with a gold husk border alternating with pale blue enamel rosettes, the base similarly decorated around translucent blue enamel over engine-turned circular bands of flowers within sun-rays, maker’s mark, London town mark,
9.2cm., 3⅝in. wide
Collection of C.H.T. Hawkins of Portland Place, London, deceased, sale, part 1, Christie's London, 22 March 1904, lot 97, purchased by 'Pinto' for £50; Sotheby's Geneva, 17 November 1988, lot 381
Another gold box by Morisset with a very similar style of enameling, set with a portrait miniature of King Frederick William of Prussia, dated 1794, is to be found in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Loan:Met Anon.9:1,2-2012). For a second comparable example in terms of design source and type of enamelling, see Morisset’s gold box chased with a scene from The Tempest, illustrated in Kenneth Snowman, 18th century snuff boxes of Europe, London, 1990, pl. 584. Several of the famous freedom boxes by Morisset can be found in museum collections as well, among them an example presented to Sir John Jervis, in the Royal Maritime Museum in Greenwich (inv. no PLT0075). The Metropolitan Museum in New York and a few other institutions own examples of James Morisset’s smallswords, dating about ten to fifteen years earlier than the present box (for example the MET, inv. no 26.145.315, 42.50.3Z).