A Gold and Enamel Snuff Box, Frères Toussaint, Hanau, Circa 1820/1825

Dating this box by les Frères Toussaint is possible because of an album kept in the Drawing Academy in Hanau which includes designs and imprints of gold boxes made by the Toussaint family in different periods and constellations.

Among them is a design for a box of very similar shape and design to the present lot (see fig. 1), apart from the engraved animals. The matching box was sold at Christie’s New York, 12 December 2017, lot 385 and is indeed marked with the initials of Friedrich Otto Toussaint, a member of the third Toussaint generation who took over in 1825 (A. Starp, 'Grosse Bijouterie in Hanau', op. cit, p. 218).