A remarkable true museum piece, this - dates Louis XV to Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette era. This beautiful young woman in her c.1750 fashionable attire and bonnet, a diaphanous fichu around her shoulders and tied at her low bodice, is an incredibly fine little work of art. She looks out at us from 270 years ago, give or take a decade. Protected under the original convex and highly polished cover glass in an 18k gold frame mat, and mounted atop a fine ivory and tortoise shell snuff box, or patch box (size for mid-1700s snuffs a bit smaller than a few decades later on). Measurements in full are noted on the photos. I did not wish to disrupt the 18k gold by trying to remove it and open up so the photos of the wafer are all taken through the convex cover glass and may show a tiny bit of dust on or under the glass. No damage, though.
Very good to excellent condition throughout, age and type considered. The box is superb for age. Note how it is not warped, and fits perfectly and snug together. No chips or rim loss - the slender trim of tortoise shell is surprisingly intact. I find 2 fine hairlines from normal shrinkage of the natural material, and I've marked and shown them for your review. One at side of box bottom, and a smaller one at side of the top half of box. Quite usual for aged ivory. The painting is, as you can see, magnificent. Her face is only 1/2" from chin to hairline.
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.
