Featured Very Excited, Not Sure Where to Put this...18thC Mystery boxes?

The figure is wearing what would be called in the UK Regency-era clothing. The fashion throughout Europe from 1795 to 1820. But, of course, fashions of that time were inspired by Classical Greece so her clothing could be referring to that of a goddess. Is there a figure in pierced metal on each of the four sides? If so, would you post photographs of all?

Debora

 

That's what I feared

Coming right up @Debora!

 

The B is an H: Ernehret


Google translates 'Ernehret' to 'honoured', but based on the texts with 'unfried', I think 'Ernehret' is an old spelling of 'Ernährt', and that (if I'm not mistaken) translates to 'nourishes' (while 'verzehrt' translates to 'consumes')

Edit:
And .... of course I missed the earlier reply by AJ while I was looking for this info

 

@Debora, here are the 4 panels on the pyramid/cone box.

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Thanks. None wearing contemporary dress. Pity.

Debora

 

Indeed, definitely a different theme here. Interesting we have wheat in both boxes, one with wine/grapes, and then two noble people?

 

What looks like a turban to you, looks like a European hat to me. Some kind of rural dress.
I'll see if I can remember and find something similar, but not now, I've been doing too much (not on your boxes, other things).

 

It’s funny how different we all view the world and the things within it. We here see these boxes and see treasure. The junk dealer sees one euro. My ex would see garbage, to literally go in the bin. It blows my mind that even in their dirty and damaged state a dealer would look at these, gloss completely over all the amazing hand made detail and jewels and think to themselves one euro is probably all I can get on these. Like their stack of Mr. Bean dvds are priced at 2 euro each, but these meticulously made antique treasures “ehh 1 euro if I’m lucky”. I’d much rather have a dirty damaged little box like one of these than one hundred other nice but “mass produced” type antiques in better condition. Very cool finds, I’m jealous.

 

Quite! They were sat off to the side on a box, not with her 'pretties'. When I asked the price she was like 'oh a euro' like she couldn't price a random box higher than that. She definitely thought little to nothing of these. I also bought a c1900/1910 black glass necklace, for another euro. She seemed to deal in ceramics and glass, so anything else was a bit of a mystery.

To be honest the square one caught my eye, I only looked at the cone after as they were placed together and I didn't want to miss anything. You see so many similar patterns in the brass work on modern tat that I now wonder if I've passed by loads of these without a second thought.

 

Think the scenes represent the four seasons. Bearing in mind we're talking about Germany... Wine = Fall, Fire = Winter, Flowers = Spring, Wheat = Summer. All the figures appear to be representational except the nude, partially draped woman who is symbolic. And not a cone, an obelisk.

Debora

 

well said @J Dagger, I agree with you

these are fabulous pieces @RachelW, great finds

 

Oh yes it is! I didn't notice the fire, interesting. Obelisk is a much better word. What would she be symbolic of? Plenty, peace, wealth?

 

Spring.

Debora

 

Oh I see you meant in that context. Interesting that she is scantily clad rather than summer. So far depictions of spring have some clothes on for the chill.

 

Not sure what you're referring to but... Flora, the goddess of Spring, is typically shown semi-nude.

Debora

 

The Sun King was Louis XIV (14th) - had to look up his reign dates 1643-1715. IIRC he lived so long he was succeeded by a grandson. He became king as a minor.

if these are as old as we think, they could refer to the Peace of Westphalia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_of_Westphalia

 

Good heavens, could they actually be as old as all that?? I was mistakenly thinking the Sun King was Louis XVI until this morning when I did more research. Perhaps I should look into getting these formally appraised/looked at...

Funnily enough I had a dream last night that the other two panels on the obelisk were still intact, although in the wrong order and upside down from me. The other two were portraits of a man and woman, when I saw the photo of Louis XIV today I realised he was or at least similar to the man in my dream....hadn't seen his photo since highschool if at all so no idea how that got there. Not sure if that has anything to do with it, but its an interesting coincidence.

Thanks @Debora, I hadn't seen that far in my Google search before family time.

 

It does make you wonder. The cuts on the stones could certainly be that old.