I know, such a tragedy that one child's portrait has a little loss to it - someone must have cleaned it at some point with water and it leaked into the portrait, I imagine, but against all the positives of this rare double portrait snuff box, one takes it as it is. A girl and a boy, pretty sure, it must have been such a treasure to the parent. Its excellent condition otherwise suggests it was kept as a memento and not used. There are no rim chips, for instance, on that inner fragile lip. So many children died young back then, one wonders if it might have been a mourning token. We can't know. It is entirely tortoise shell* and the 2 mounts test 18k gold. A family of means, of course. Lots of photos, and measurements are noted on photos.
Very good to excellent condition for age and type, the box is quite amazingly well preserved, though to one side panel there is a natural flaw (xx) which is inherent in the process of bending shell into a form like this. No rim chips anywhere. Cover glasses are each intact in full, and while I'm tempted to remove the boy to clean the interior of the cover glass, I'm leaving that decision to next owner. It's just a little dust you see, not sick glass. The oval tops of the mounts do test 18k gold, though I'm certain that's a plaque mounted to a brass portrait mount, typical of the era. As noted, the child in red has had loss to the painting, likely from moisture. The little boy is fine.
*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.
