Likely a souvenir of someone's mid-Victorian to Edwardian era Grand Tour, a cameo brought back from southern Italy and mounted beautifully atop this elegant lathe-turned burled wood snuff box. Or might it have been a powder box? It's snuff box size for 19th century, 3" diameter. The hand carved cameo is large at 2" x 1 1/2" oval, and we most often see them mounted in old jewelry. It would have made up into a large bodice or brooch, but are more rare found as snuff boxes, from my experience.
Very good to excellent condition throughout. Very well treasured, it hasn't any cracks nor damage notable (see one minuscule nip marked with an 'x' on our photos - only visible in the greatly enlarged image). The hand carved ivory cameo is a classical maiden - or is it a young and classically feminine boy? Our photos show it well. From my collections being disbursed.
IMPORTANT NOTE regarding antique tortoise shell or ivory: We are great supporters of protection for endangered species in our modern world. We never buy or sell anything 100 years or newer; we donate to anti-poaching organizations; we don't hunt; we conserve in ways that impact global warming (we're totally solar at home), knowing those measures also protect the animals in the wild today. We also recognize the vast cultural history we preserve with our care and reverence for these antique objects, and agree with CITES that objects over 100 years of age have nothing whatsoever to do with species depletion in our current world.
Our offering exceeds the age limitation of "more than 100 years of age", and is well within the exemption for CITES regulation. If imported, met the CITES regulation. This item will be handled and shipped from our Utah business, and is not available for shipment internationally, nor within the USA to California, NY, Nevada, Hawaii, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington if it contains ivory, sorry. Please see our small print for more details.
