A carved hardstone snuff box with jewelled gold mounts, German, circa 1770
Auction Closed
December 10, 02:29 PM GMT
Estimate
15,000 - 20,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
A car🔯ved hardstone snuff box with jewelled gold mounts, German, circa 1770
in the form of a ram playing a pipe, his eyes, horns and diadem set with small rose diamonds, rubies and an emerald, the lid carved with a tower symbol, the reeded gold lid mount with a small scrolling rose diamond thumbpiece, unmarked
8.4 cm., 3 1/4 in. high
Collections du Baron de Redé et du Baron Guy de Rothschild;
sale, Sotheby's Monaco, 25 May 1975, lot 12;
anonymous vendor, Sotheby's Geneva, 8 May 1978, lot 7
sale, Sotheby's Monaco, 25 May 1975, lot 12;
anonymous vendor, Sotheby's Geneva, 8 May 1978, lot 7
Somerset House Art Treasures Exhibition 1979, no. J1 (not illustrated in catalogue)
For a similar example of brown agate, also carved as a ram playing a pipe, see Kenneth Snowman, Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Europe, London, 1990, plate 624, p. 306.