There are 2 types of portrait miniatures, basically: 1. portraits of real people who sit for the painting, personal and intimate portraits, and 2. portraits after famous works of art or famous people made to appeal to the Grand Tour tourist trades. This portrait is of the 2nd type, and is most likely a rendering of Marie-Antoinette. The box would likely have been a c.1850-70 souvenir sold in Paris, or perhaps at Versailles. The box is the form often to have included a rosary, that rounded shape and the way the interior looks, but it could have been a small powder or rouge pot with a little ostrich down powder puff, or even intended as a snuff box.
Very good to excellent condition for age and type. Photos show it well. The portrait is painted in gouache on thin ivory wafer, typical of the era and manner. It is protected under cover glass and set into the lid surrounded in a protective and decorative brass mat/frame. A lovely souvenir, perhaps of your own Grand Tour of France. Measurements noted on the photos.
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.
