A lovely portrait miniature of an 18th century beauty, from the era of Marie-Antoinette and French King Louis XVI, and all indications of it having been made in that era, too. Size of 18th century snuff boxes is smaller in diameter and a little taller, which this one is. The carved ivory box has just one aspect which makes me wonder if it is early to mid-19th century, though, made as a revival box for tourist trade of the first half of 1800s. That detail is the curvature on the interior of the box's bottom half. Also, while it is the right size for a snuff box, more typical for a snuff would be to have a lining of tortoise shell. In that early to mid-1800s period, powder boxes and trinket or bonbon boxes were popular, often complete with an ivory-knob topped ostrich down powder puff. That said, the painting remains under its convex cover glass and you can see various angles of shine from our photo lights. I did not take her out of mount, so you see slight distortion of the convex glass on the photos, as well. Full measurements are noted on the photos.
Very good condition for age and type, left shy of excellent by not being certain of the age. An interesting double silver encirclement on the top half of box seems to me to have been added to keep it stable (you see the hairline crack on one side, typical of the shrinkage of old ivory). Nicely done, one can't see a solder or joint - also goes to it being older and more precious to its owner. The convex cover glass is intact, and the painting is beautiful, yet I see what maybe be a tiny effect of trapped moisture at some point, which shows as a little brown paint directly adhering to the inner glass, left of her neck.
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.
