Napoleon III era, I would think, rather than Louis XVI, during which time one would have seen a revival of the Vernis Martin decorative style best loved by Marie-Antoinette. While it is possible it's from her era, I feel much more confident it is c.1850-70s. That said, entirely hand painted, both the double portrait within and the fine decorative outer box. Small paintings of putti and mythical creatures of 4 varied scenes and lush garlands of flowers draped between them, I've tried to show them in detail in our photos. Very charming, even though the years have taken away some of the paintings. The rather large portrait miniature is beautifully done and has a signature of the artist, I did not take the painting out of its mount, so the photos of it are all through the slightly convex and quite reflective cover glass. The wafer is 3 1/4" in diameter, but the artist has created a smaller circle into which the double portrait is, and edged it with dashes of gold to frame in the 2 5/8" artwork. The outer metal mount is fully in place, decorative brass.
Very good to excellent condition for age and type. Even as Vernis Martin revival, the box would now be 170-150 years of age, and it has no chips and no cracks. It does, however, have some missing paint - particularly as mentioned, on the 4 rectangular painting on sides of the box's bottom half, across which putti dance and play. Sad, because even from what remains, those are so charming. The sections with floral garlands have fared better over time. The painting of the 2 beautiful young women remains as charming as ever, no damage.
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.
