Featured HAPPY SNUFF BOXES FOR EVERYBODY WHO COLLECTS THEM!!!

Just got my Christie's email and thought this part of it fascinating!!!! ENJOY!!

https://www.christies.com/features/...A39recommended_1_1&cid=DM200962&bid=141429988

 

Beautiful, Aqui.
I'll have this one, thank you.

 

HAHA!!! I'll buy you yours if you buy me mine......and thank YOU!!!

 

Throw in this one and we have a deal.

 

NOW, I'm scared to go look................

OK, AJ, you DO realize, that leaves me WAAAAAAAY ahead in the savings department!!!!

 

Well, that was fun anyway and it didn't cost us a dime!!!

 

This one with the grisaille enamel for me. It will now drive me nuts. Pretty sure I have seen the image before, but of course now can't remember & can't find:

 

Beautiful items! That said, way too much money for my pockets! I appreciate the fun though.

 

Gold boxes are a passion of mine (pictures only, sadly). They were made for aristocrats and you still pretty much have to be one to afford them.

Absolutely incredible workmanship.

There's a story of one of the Louis presenting a gold box to a newly arrived ambassador. The ambassador sold it back to the original merchant and used the money to finance his embassy. When that embassy ended, Louis presented him again with the same box as a parting gift.

I have most of the books written about them, most of the published collection catalogs, and a goodly number of the sales catalogs. (At least pre-2000.) When one catalog gives references to other published sources, odds are I'll have it.

The one catalog I don't have is the Louvre's. It's expensive, both the one from 1934 (Nocq and Dreyfus), and the one from 1981 (Grandjean). Mostly black and white photos, which is what holds me back.

Strangely, in my fantasies, I don't see myself as owning them, but rather as being involved in their manufacture.

I read just recently that there are more designs extant for gold boxes than for any other 18th C article. Most of them cannot be matched up to existing boxes.

This picture of an 18th C lathe for producing guillocher patterns is from "Gold Boxes of Europe" by Kenneth Snowman (probably still the #1 picture book on the subject).

 

You see those numbers on the Neuber box? There will be a little booklet, likely hidden in a secret compartment in the box, identifying each stone.

 

Is that the one @Any Jewelry's "buying" for me???? COOL idea!!!!! HAHAHA!!!! AND WHO besides Warren Buffet has that kind of $$$$$$$$$ anyway!!

 

I don't just buy you any old junk.
It reminds me a bit of Victorian Scottish pebble jewellery. Only a bit. I have a set, which will do for now.... Ok, more than do, I am happy with it.

 

And I vote for this one...the Louis XVI enamelled gold.