With his identity recorded for posterity, and the almost too small to see signature of the artist, one surely can do some digging and find out more about this very handsome young man, and what became of him. Dated 1819, he seems too young to have fought with Napoleon, and perhaps too well-dressed to not feel certain he is a Royalist, happy to see the end of Napoleon's French Empire, with his final defeat at Waterloo, 1815, and the return of French Kings during this 2nd Restauration era. Louis XVIII was king, and exiled Royalists returned to France from their post-Terror political departure after the French Revolution. I digress. The superb painting is beautifully kept under the original convex cover glass, a simple brass mat and mounted on a reconstituted tortoise shell snuff box with lathe-turned tortoise shell liner, lip.
Very good to excellent condition for age and type. When I acquired this one, there was a bit of a haze of dust on the interior of the glass. I didn't get around to opening it up to thoroughly clean it until I decided to list it. To my pleasure and surprise, there is a very visible though tiny signature and date which had earlier been obscured by the haze on the glass. I've enlarged it for your review. I have not made it out well enough to research the artist, but the date is easier and clear: January 1819). If I find more, I'll annotate. Same with the name of the young man. Perhaps George Riscle? Uncertain of the top line. A very small bit of roughness to the reconstituted shell on edges here or there (see images), none of which rise to 'chip'. No warp. Measurements are 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.
