She is stunning, is she not! A portrait style popular c.1770-1810, set into outdoors, a landscape stretching behind her. Quite informal, her gown bares her shoulder and one maiden's nipple. Her gaze has flirtation. We can assume the portrait would have been a gift to her lover, and here we are, more than 200 years later and she still glances enticingly from the long distant past. Even I fall in love with her. I've opened the mount, which is sterling silver but I see no punch marks. It's possible I'm the first to have done so. The original convex cover glass is pristine, as is the painting - very treasured and a museum quality piece even without the signature of the artist, who remains as unknown to us as our beautiful maiden. A magnificent find!
Very good to excellent condition for age and type. The c.1770-1810 snuff box is lathe-turned and made from tortoise shell. As such, you see about 3-4 very small bug bites on the bottom rim - quite common in this material. No other loss nor damage to report. Uniquely appealing with the rectangular form set into the round snuff. Measurements are noted on the photos. Her face is just 3/4", chin to bangs. Incredible art, to be enlarged as I have done and still be concise, clear, gorgeous. The painting wafer is slightly under 2 1/8" x 1 3/4", no loss, no warp. Sterling silver mount, convex cover glass - all original and 210-250 years old.
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.
