Lot 216

"LFT" (Les Frères Toussaint, Hanau), 65 x 49 x 27 mm, 98 g, circa 1780
An impressive German gold enamel snuff box
Case: 19k gold (Hanau town mark for 19k gold), maker's mark "LFT" (Les Frères Toussaint, Hanau, 1752-1803), imitating French prestige marks: charge mark Julien Alaterre (1768-1775), Parisian guild punch mark "K" (1773-1774).
The oval box is decorated allover with enamelled panels showing idealized riverside scenes with staffage figures painted in purple en camaïeu on opalescent salmon-coloured ground. The scenes are framed by sablé borders with translucent orange-colured and green enamel vases and foliage, and white enamel beading on opaque light blue enamel ground.
A round snuff box created by Les Frères Toussaint with a similar motif and almost identical marks is described and illustrated in Serge Grandjean’s "Catalogue des tabatières boîtes et ètuis des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles du Musée du Louvre", Paris 1981, no. 76.
We presented a very similar box which was decorated with blue painted scenes during our last auction in November 2017 (lot 107).

There are other boxes by the brothers Toussaint with similar enamel decoration; all of them show rural or maritime scenes exquisitely painted on opalescent, light pink ground. The paintings are usually so finely executed that they resemble the pattern of moss agate. The lovingly painted scenes and the intricate details of the delicate borders that surround them indicate the value these pieces hold - they enchanted their owners in the 18th century just as much as they fascinate the collectors of today.