Featured Antique French Porcelain Box

Hi dear members,

Can you help me with my dilemma about this box?
I know it is old, made in France.
The design represents Zeus and Amalthea.
I don't have any info about the mark.
How old is it? How about its value?

Thank you,
Mirela

 

I have a weakness for scenes with goats. Zeus & Amalthea may be the right identification, I don't have a better one, but the overall composition is somewhat inconsistent with other representations, so I would be hesitant to commit.

Typically Zeus would be an infant, or, if an adult, wearing the skin of his wet nurse. If it were meant for the god, would expect at least a laurel or oak wreath to indicate this is not some mortal. A couple of other mythological figures were also suckled by goats as infants. The putti ringing the scene, one banging on a drum, really don't go with any of them. Collectively they add up more to companions of Dionysus/Bacchus.

Goats often make prankish appearances. Didn't manage a very decent photo of this, copied from an older gem:



Your scene strikes me as being more in this vein. Love it!

 

I think it's more likely Italian. This style of box is usually called Capodimonte, and Capodimonte-style is probably as close as you'll get to a maker.

 

Maybe it is Capodimonte, but what about the "Made in France" mark?

 

Hope the real porcelain people will come along. It's a puzzle, because the mark resembles Capodimonte:

 

I knew this would happen, but I didn't look at all the pics. Just saw the crowned N with a red smudge above it.

The modelling of the porcelain resembles Capodimonte as well. I would call it Capodimonte-style if it had no mark at all.

Just shows how widespread that particular treatment became.