A Pearl-Set Gold and Enamel Watch Snuff Box, Probably Geneva, Circa 1800
Auction Closed
June 18, 05:01 PM GMT
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
rectangular with cut corners, the lid centered with a circular en grisaille enamel plaque painted with Dormio innocuus, vix impune expergefeceris by William Wynne Ryland, after Angelica Kauffman, published in 1776, within a split-pearl frame, opening to reveal a watch with a white enamel dial, the movement signed: Joseph Silver, London, serial number 1554, surrounded by a translucent blue enamel ground over banded and pellet engine-turning, with pale-blue and gold interlaced taille d'épargne enamel borders, the angles decorated with taille d'épargne vases hung with swags, pseudo-English marks, French hibou control marks
Length 3 3/8 in.
8.6 cm
In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, English timepieces were esteemed in the Ottoman world and beyond to the extent that to give timepieces of different origins greater prestige, marks imitating those used in England were added. For another example of a Swiss snuff box, the interior inset with a miniature of Sultan Mahmud II, with marks imitating those of John Ray & James Montague, see Haydn Williams, Enamels of the World, The Khalili Collections, London, 2009, no. 45.
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