A GEORGE II ENAMELLED GOLD SNUFF-BOX

LONDON, CIRCA 1760

Details

Rectangular, the cover, sides and base decorated en plein with translucent blue basse taille enamel carnations and anemones sprays within foliate ribbons over an engine-turned ground of fine horizontal reeding, with chased outer borders
2 5/8 in. (6.5 cm.)
Gross weight: 4 oz. 11 dwt. (142 gr.)
Provenance

The Property of a Lady; Sotheby's, London, 9 November 2000, lot 64.
Lot Essay

This box with its fine chasing and enamelling is a testament to the talent of London goldsmiths who adapted their work to suit the latest fashion and the demand of their rich aristocratic and fashion conscious clientele. Of course many gold-box makers as well as enamellers, chasers and engravers came from the continent having brought with them their techniques and designs. However very few boxes of this quality have survives.
Another unmarked example very similar in style and decoration to the present box, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum and is illustrated in K. Snowman, Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Europe, London, 1966, pl. 460; meanwhile Christie's sold on 3 June 2014, lot 243, a box with comparable decoration but with maker's mark JB under a crown attributed to John Barbot who described himself in his will as 'goldsmith and jeweller' when he died in 1766.