When I opened this one up to clean the interior of her convex cover glass, I found her ID noted on the backing to the painted wafer. She is Anne-Marie-Hortense Perregaux, Duchess of Ragusa (In 1798, Marmont married Anne-Marie-Hortense Perregaux, the daughter of Jean-Frédéric Perregaux, a Swiss (and Protestant) banker, later a founder and regent of the Banque de France, and Adélaïde de Praël de Surville, herself the natural daughter of the banker to the court of Louis XV, Nicholas Beaujon. They had no children and were divorced in 1817. She outlived him by five years, dying in Paris in 1857. This painting would have been done in her youth, c. 1797-1800. As Marmont was one of Napoleon's Generals, it is a little odd to see the Duchess wrapped in the red sash which would identify her as a child or relative or supporter of Royalists, the sash often seen in the period portraits in remembrance of those lost to the guillotine and The Terror. She's a woman you will want to study. The painting is superb, larger than most in her time, and is perfectly preserved.
Very good to excellent condition throughout. A burled wood (root) snuff box, perfectly preserved, this one is a large table snuff at 4" in diameter, or even possibly a powder box in its time. Wafer is immaculate, as you can see, and convex cover glass and brass mount are, as well. A superb collector's piece!
