A late 18^th / early 19^th century German 18 carat gold and enamel snuff box, Hanau circa 1800 possibly by Frères Souchay

Of rectangular form, with canted corners. The hinged lid with a central rectangular cartouche with canted corners with alternating engine turned bands, edged with opaque blue enamel reserved with opaque white enamel trailing leaves and scrolls and a chased foliate border backed with blue enamel. The obverse and sides with similar decoration, the canted corners with leafy urns above anthemion reserved with in white enamel. Marked to lid bezel with Hanau 18^th carat gold mark (shell), to the base and lid with an incuse rosette, a V and a crowned S in an oval cartouche. The lid bezel with a Austrian import mark for Vienna.

Length – 9.5 cm / 3.75 inches

Weight – 93 grams / 2.99 ozt

Provenance: Sotheby’s London, 18 Jul 1988, Lot 159

A box by Frères Souchay, bearing this Rosette mark, an imitation of French discharge mark Paris 1768-1774, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (09.127.2)