A gold and enamel needle case, Paris, circa 1773/1774
Estimate
5,000 - 7,000 EUR
We may charge or debit your saved payment method subject to the terms set out in our Conditions of Business for Buyers.
Read more.Lot Details
Description
slightly tapered, both sides and the top decorated with a leopard fur enamel pattern over reeded engine-turning, framed by slender opaque white enamel rims and chased leafy borders on a sablé ground, picked out in translucent green enamel, plain gold base, the interior with an associated brass implement, illegible maker's mark, traces of charge mark of Julien Alaterre (1768-1774),
with a certificate of provenance from Kensington Palace
10.4cm; 4 1/8 in. high,
overall weight including brass implement 49 grams; 1.72 oz.
HRH Princess Margaret;
Christie's London, 14 June 2006, lot 862
Although there is no legible date letter on this needle case it can be assumed that it was made towards the end of the period indicated by the charge mark (1768-1774). It falls in the height of the extravagant fashion of leopard or tiger fur in enamel from around the mid-1770s in Paris. A few circular bonbonnieres enamelled in leopard-fur pattern by the eminent Parisian bijoutier Joseph-Etienne Blerzy are recorded: see Sotheby Parke Bernet, Zurich, 23 November 1978, lot 22, and Sotheby’s Geneva, 17 May 1984, lot 301 for an example dated 1776. Another leopard-fur box by Blerzy, further set with an enamel representing the departure of Telemachus from Egypt, was formerly in the collection of Mayer Carl von Rothschild and sold Sotheby's Paris, 11 October 2022, lot 60. A snuff box with similar decoration (described as 'Tigerfell-Bonbonniere') by Charles Le Bastier, Paris, 1774/75, belongs to the Thurn and Taxis Collection (Lorenz Seelig, Golddosen des 18. Jahrhunderts aus dem Besitz der Fürsten von Thurn und Taxis, Munich, 2007, no. 12, p. 182).
You May Also Like
