5 Jul 2011
10:30 BST
London, New Bond Street
The Helmut Joseph Collection of Important Snuff Boxes
Back to auction 19483
The Helmut Joseph Collection of Important Snuff Boxes
Back to auction 19483
A Meissen gold-mounted blue-scale-ground snuff-box with a portrait of Ludwig VIII, Landgrave of Hessen-Darmstadt, circa 1755
Each panel on the exterior reserved with a battle scene within an elaborate coloured rocaille cartouche, the cover with a scene of officers on horseback and troops and an encampment in the distance, within a similar cartouche embellished with palm fronds, the inside cover with a superbly painted half-figure portrait of Ludwig VIII, Landgrave of Hessen-Darmstadt, wearing half armour with a purple ermine robe decorated with the blue ribbon and star of the Danish Order of the Elephant and the Polish Order of the White Elephant on a blue sash, a helmet to his left and behind him to his right, soldiers firing a cannon at a distant town, wavy gold mounts to the rim and base, 8cm across; 4cm high the mounts marked A within a lozenge for Vienna before 1806
Estimate:
£30,000 - 50,000
€35,000 - 58,000
US$ 45,000 - 75,000
€35,000 - 58,000
US$ 45,000 - 75,000
Footnotes
- Provenance:
Alfred Joseph Collection, no. 1207
Literature:
Beaucamp-Markowsky 1985, no. 54;
Beaucamp-Markowsky 1988, no. 14
Exhibited:
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, 1972-2003;
London, Gilbert Collection, Somerset House, 2003-2008;
Barnard Castle, Co. Durham, The Bowes Museum, 2008-2010
Born in 1691, Ludwig VIII was the son of Ernest Louis, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt and Margravine Dorothea Charlotte of Brandenburg-Ansbach. In 1717, he married Countess Charlotte Christine Magdalene Johanna of Hanau, becoming Landgrave of Hessen-Darmstadt in 1739. He died in 1768.
The portrait of Ludwig VIII, is taken from a series painted by Johann Christian Fielder (1695-1765) and engraved by Johann Martin Bernigeroth. A Meissen box with the same portrait of Ludwig VIII on the inside cover, is currently on loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, from the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection (inv. no. 504-2008).
Category: Decorative Arts / European Ceramics
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