A gold and enamel snuff box, maker's mark JB/IB crowned, London, circa 1760

William Henry 'Judge' Moore (1848-1922);

Christie's, London, 3 June 2014, lot 243 (The Property of a Gentleman)

William Henry 'Judge' Moore (1848-1922). Described as "a suave, cultivated gentleman who had created three great trusts in steel, matches and biscuits", Moore was an American attorney and financier who had started his extremely successful career by adventuring in the then wild West before applying the principles he had learnt there to money-making in more conventional areas.

The London maker's mark J or I or TB in script crowned has not so far been identified although it has sometimes been attributed to the plateworker John Barbe or to the necessaire-maker John Barbot. From April 1697, the surviving registers of the Goldsmiths' Hall recorded the makers’ marks of goldsmiths in two volumes, one for large workers and one for small, running concurrently. The volume for small workers from 1738 until 1758 has long been missing and since this was a time of high activity for goldworkers and chasers in London, it has caused many problems for the identification of individual makers. Much work has been done to fill in the gaps (see J.Culme, 'Trade of fancy', The Silver Society Journal, Autumn 2000, p.98) but certain marks still remain a problem such as the present example, J /I (or T) B in script, crowned. In this case, it is not a lack of suitable candidates that is the problem but more an embarrass de richesses since JB, IB or TB are such very common initials and there are few recorded examples of this maker's work. These include two rectangular boxes chased with the same subject of Jason and the Golden Fleece, dated 1759 (Sotheby's New York, 15 April 2010, lot 272) and 1761 (Sotheby's London, 3 July 2012, lot 169) and a rectangular box chased with Aeneas consulting the Cumaean Sibyl (Christie's, London, 8 December 2011, lot 123). Those boxes are all chased rather than enamelled although several other London boxes enamelled in this style of blue basse-taille are recorded, either unmarked or with different marks.