A Varicolour Gold Snuff Box, Les Frères Toussaint, Hanau, Circa 1765
Live auction begins on:
June 24, 02:00 PM GMT
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
of elongated oval shape, all sides chased with pastoral subjects and still lives of fruit en quatre couleurs, on a reeded ground framed with boldly chased foliate scrolls around engraved trellis-patterned reserves, rubbed maker's mark, plough-shaped Hanau charge mark, post-1918 French eagle's head control mark for 18 ct gold,
Length 3 ¼ in., 8.3 cm.
The marks on the present lot are those of the goldsmiths Les Frères Toussaint, the Huguenot brothers Charles (1720-1790) and Pierre-Etienne (1726-1803/1806), only discovered as eminent bijoutiers and gold box makers in Hanau, near Frankfurt, a few years ago. Previously, the same set of marks as on the present lot was found on many gold boxes around the world; until then they were usually recorded simply as ‘marked LFT’ and believed to be of Paris or Geneva origin, mostly in absence of a better alternative. Today we know, however, that these prolific bijoutiers used two sets of marks for their gold boxes made between circa 1760 and the early nineteenth century, both of which were based on contemporary Paris marks in order to ensure successful sales at the international fairs at the time. The present lot is struck with the earlier hallmarks.