A CHINESE EXPORT PARCEL-GILT AND SILVER FILIGREE CASKET

CANTON, APPARENTLY UNMARKED, CIRCA 1750

Details

Serpentine oblong, the cover and sides applied with fine filigree work panels, the cover panels in the form of a flower centred with a silver-gilt rosette, the sides with panels of varying trellis pattern filigree-work, with two silver-gilt handles, the interior fully lined in silver-gilt, the interior cover engraved with a coat-of-arms within Rococo cartouche
7 in. (17.8 cm.) long
20 oz. 10 dwt. (649 gr.)
The arms are those of Pigott, later Smyth-Pigott, of Brockley Hall and the Grove, co. Somerset.
Provenance

Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 19 May 2010, lot 171.
Lot Essay

Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, in common with many European monarchs of the time, had a fascination with Chinoiserie work. She owned seven caskets of similar form as part of her dressing plate. Two of these closely related caskets, now at the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, illustrated in M. B. Piotrovski, Treasures of Catherine the Great, State Hermitage Museum, exhibition catalogue, Somerset House, 2000, illus. p. 218. Queen Charlotte, consort of King George III, also owned works in filigree, including 'A frame for a toilet glass, of silver filigree', sold Christie's, London, 17-18 May, 1819, lot 90, as cited in Piotrovski, op. cit., p. 211.