A gorgeous little painting still perfect beneath its ordinal slightly convex cover glass and 18k gold mount, a person making an offering of flowers to the alter of love, dove is love. These charming boxes, this one in blond tortoise shell, were often gifts, sentiments of a search for or the finding and expression of love. The face on the figure is a tiny 1/16" - imagine! All measurements are noted on our photos, but box is 2.5" in diameter. Dating mid-1700s, it's a charming little museum piece.
Very good condition for age and type, the painting and cover, gold mount and all gold pique work is fully intact, accented pique is silver and gold. The box is blond tortoise shell, has some of the typical and usual bug bites on edges, but none on the top. The side of lid has a break/chip marked with 'X', and I've shown it from all sides for your review of nips. Some natural flaws to the tortoise shell, which is to be anticipated. Thin enough to see through clearly, as you can see in our images showing the bottom half layer over an intaglio print (print is not included). Displays beautifully! From my own lifelong collections.
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.
