From Masonic Pugs to Enamelled Snuff Boxes, Elegant Works of Craftsmanship Spanning Five Centuries

From Masonic Pugs to Enamelled Snuff Boxes, Elegant Works of Craftsmanship Spanning Five Centuries

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  A gold and enamel snuff box for the Chinese market, painted by Jean-Louis Richter, Guidon, Rémond, Gide & Co., Geneva, 1792-1801, Estimate £8,000–12,000.

  With the mirror-image ‘pair’ to the present box being part of in the collection of the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva (inv. No. E0278), it is highly likely that this enamel snuff box, painted by the celebrated Geneva enameller Jean-Louis Richter, was made for the Chinese market. At the time, it was believed that watches, automata and snuff boxes for this market should be made as pairs, symbolising harmony.

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  A gold and enamel double-opening snuff box, Aymé-Antoine Chollet, Paris, 1757, Estimate £25,000–35,000
  

  Both the lid and the base of this charming gold and basse-taille enamel snuff box made in Paris in 1757 open. Other examples by the renowned bijouter Aymé-Antoine Chollet, whose maker’s mark has been the subject of scholarship for quite some time, are to be found in the Wallace collection and important private collections.

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  A pair of Victorian silver meat dishes and covers from the Ashburnham Dinner Service, Paul Storr, London, 1837, Estimate £25,000–£35,000.
  

  These meat dishes and covers were part of a much larger service commissioned for Betram, the 4th Earl of Ashburnham. The pattern, named after the Earl, was commissioned for him exclusively, and executed in the workshop of Paul Storr for Storr and Mortimer.

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  A late 17th century parcel-gilt silver cagework cup and cover, unmarked, attributable to the workshop of Jacob Bodendick, of London, circa 1660, Estimate £50,000–£80,000.

  This superb example of a 17th century ‘sleeve’ or ‘cage-work’ cup is pierced and chased after the designs of the engraver Paul Gottich (1596-1622). Although unmarked, the work is attributed to Jacob Bodendick, a German import, whose work was highly favoured by King Charles I.

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  An assembled pair of Meissen models of pugs, circa 1747, Estimate £8,000–12,000.

  Two endearing models of hounds with a secret meaning, the pug was a symbol of Freemasonry or the Order of the Mops in 18th century Saxony following a papal ban on membership in 1738.

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  A gold-mounted hardstone snuff box, Paris, 1726-1732, Estimate £4,000–6,000

  This very smart gold and agate arborisée snuff box is a very early, yet refined example of the growing interest in agate arborisé in early 18th century France, where these dendritic hardstones were not only cherished as scientific examples of mineral specimens, mainly displayed in cabinets of curiosities, but were also perceived as a natural way of creating images.

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  A Vincennes bleu-celèste oval dish from the Louis XV service, Estimate £30,000–50,000.

  A rare dish from a French Royal service made for Versailles, this forms part of the second delivery of the service of 1754

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  A large German silver-gilt commemorative tankard, Matthäus Bock, Königsberg, 1680, Estimate £12,000–£18,000

  This 17th century German tankard, of very large size, is finely chased with Jepthah and his daughter from the Hebrew Bible. The tankard was possibly a gift, with the cover inset with a commemorative medallion celebrating the marriage of the King of Poland, Wladyslaw IV to the Archduchess Cecilia Renata of Austria in 1637.

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  A Charles II silver-gilt flagon, Francis Walton, London, 1663, Estimate £8,000–12,000.
  

  This superb flagon, made in the reign of Charles II, was last sold with Sotheby’s in 1948 where it made over three times as much as the next most expensive lot in the sale. In fantastic condition throughout, it is engraved with the arms of Cholmondeley, for Robert Cholmondeley, 1st Viscount Cholmondeley of Kells, County Meath.

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  A Meissen gold-mounted jade-green-ground rectangular snuff-box and cover, circa 1740-45, Estimate £10,000–15,000

  A refined example of a luxurious object which combines a rare ground colour, superb landscape painting and a beautifully executed example of the miniaturist style of painting to the classical scene to the interior of the cover.

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