Snuffbox with Vegetal Pattern

The traditional attribution to Germany of all enamel boxes with encrusted gold-foil decoration has recently come into question. The assignment arose from identification of the technique with the workshop established in Berlin by Pierre Fromery in which enamels — mostly small boxes — were decorated with pictorial subjects in a combination of foil and painting. The origin of the style is confirmed by numerous signed works.(1) Perhaps related to the Berlin workshop, and of uncontested German attribution, is a group of boxes ornamented with geometric patterns in gold foil sometimes heightened with translucent enamel. Some boxes mounted with Parisian silver rims have been noted,(2) and the presence of either or both features has prompted an inclusive attribution to Germany of boxes like the present one,(3) but stylistic considerations have led to a reassessment. It is not unlikely that unmounted enamel boxes should have been imported into Paris by marchands-merciers who would have had them fitted with silver rims, and argument for such a practice can be supported by the fact that no Parisian or other French enameling workshop has so far been identified. However, a watchcase in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, is decorated with foil encrustation signed by a craftsman, G. Bouvier, active in Paris about 1740;(4) this is certainly indicative of local activity on a commercial level. The decoration of the Lehman box and several others of its type(5) is conspicuous for an easy Rococo rhythm and grace, and the inclusion here of elegant military and musical trophies —unusual in German decoration in this context— further encourages a French attribution.

Catalogue entry from: Clare Le Corbeiller. The Robert Lehman Collection. Decorative Arts, Vol. XV. Wolfram Koeppe, et al. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2012, pp. 154-55.

NOTES:
1. Somers Cocks, Anna, and Charles Truman. Renaissance Jewels, Gold Boxes and Objets de Vertu. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. London, 1984, p. 266.
2. Sale, Sotheby’s, London, 6 October 1981, lots 57, 60.
3. Ricketts, Howard. Objects of Vertu. London, 1971, p. 36 (a sedan chair of a different model); sale, Sotheby’s, London, 13 December 1976, lot 140.
4. Somers Cocks, Anna, and Charles Truman 1984, p. 267, fig. 1.
5. For example, sale, Sotheby’s, London, 8 December 1983, lot 2 (in the form of a sabot; silver mounts 1750 – 56); sale, Sotheby’s, London, 22 – 23 February 1988, lot 402 (mounts apparently 1738 – 44).

Marking: Marks:(1)
On the silver bezel:
1. The head of an ox, the charge mark for gold, Paris, 1750 – 56(2)
2. A crowned roman K, the warden’s mark for silver, Paris,
1750 – 51(3)
3. A hen’s head, the discharge mark for gold and small silver, Paris, 1750 – 56(4)

On the cover of the rim:
4. A weevil in a rectangular punch, the mark for silver imported from countries with customs conventions with France, 1893 to the present(5)

NOTES:
1. Certain marks have been interpreted by Charles Truman.
2. Bimbenet-Privat, Michèle, and Gabriel de Fontaines. La datation de l’orfèvrerie parisienne sous l’Ancien Régime: Poinçons de jurande et poinçons de la Marque, 1507 – 1792. Paris, 1995, no. 411.
3. Ibid., no. 420.
4. Ibid., no. 413.
5. Carré, Louis. A Guide to Old French Plate. London, 1931, table VIII, p. 212.

Mrs. Henry Walters, Baltimore; Walters sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 23-26 April 1941, lot 455, ill. Acquired by Robert Lehman from the Walters sale.