A gold presentation snuff box, monogram N, by Nicholas Marguerite, Paris 1798
14
An early 19th century French gold Imperial presentation snuff box,
by Nicholas Marguerite, with the post-revolutionary unofficial baby's head mark for 20.5 carat gold, Paris circa 1806, the panel to the underside of the cover with the maker's mark of Etienne Blerzy, the rim engraved Marguerite Joaillier de la Couronne & de leurs Majestés Imperiales,
the cover with a central monogram panel with a chased script N for Napoleon on a matted ground within an applied border of husks and berries on a diaper engine-turned ground with a polished leaf and lozenge guilloche border, the sides and base with similar diaper panels and guilloche bands, length 9cm, weight 169.5gms.
Sold for £58,850 inc. premium

Footnotes

  • The Victoria and Albert Museum have a box (M.122-1917) with a similar informal script-N made by Etienne Blerzy and retailed by Etienne Nitot et Fils, though it is more elaborately formed in diamonds. Interestingly, Napoleon is pictured wearing a brooch with this script N in the coronation miniature by Jean-Baptiste Isabey mounted in a box by Moulinié, Bautte et Moynier, see Charles Truman, The Gilbert Collection (Los Angeles 1991), cat 126.

    The court jeweller Marguerite, Au vase d'Or, 177 rue Saint-Honoré, received between March and August 1806, an order from the Imperial court for 100 gold boxes, decorated with diamonds, ciphers and portraits at 380,688 Fr, see Alphonse Maze-Sencier, Les fournisseurs de Napoleon Ier et des deux Imperatrices d'apres des documants inedits (Paris 1893), p.276.

Category: Decorative Arts / Silver

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