Swiss Gold and Enamel Snuff Box

Inventory Number: O23030014LC

Made circa 1809-1819 by Pierre-André Montauban in Paris, 95×65×15 mm. Yellow gold and enamel, rectangular with cut corners, the lid applied with a contemporary Geneva enamel plaque of cherubs holding flower garlands and cornucopia and frolicking around dolphins in the sea, the sides and underside decorated in regular concentric engine-turning within dark blue narrow enamel border and further scrolling garland border on a very fine sablé ground.

Cherubs playing with the mythological creatures of dolphins is a common theme in Western sculptures and paintings. The maker Pierre-André Montauban was born in Paris on 22 September 1763, only recorded in Paris from 1800, he specialized in mounting miniatures or other types of panels, such as micromosaics, in gold boxes (such as an example with a Roman micromosaic by Antonio Aguatti, representing Cupid driving a shell-chariot, now in the Gilbert Collection, London, acc no. 474-2008).

On loan from the private collection of Mr. Yeung Sau Wong.