A Battersea enamel snuff box, circa 1755
80
A Battersea enamel snuff box, circa 1755
Of rectangular shape, the lid decorated with a transfer print of the Anti-Gallican Society badge, the arms depicting Saint George spearing the fleur-de-lis of France, surmounted by Britannia and flanked by the British Lion and the Prussian two-headed Eagle, a ribbon scroll below inscribed with the motto 'FOR OUR COUNTRY', inside the lid the profile portrait of George II, all four sides decorated with the 'Diaper with Shells' pattern, 8.4cm wide (some cracks and restoration)
Sold for £2,375 inc. premium

Footnotes

  • Provenance: The Ionides Collection. The engraving of George II is from a portrait by John Sigismund Tanner, who designed the coinage of the period. The Anti-Gallican Society was founded in 1745 to oppose French goods imported into England. One of the presidents of the society was Stephen Theodore Janssen, proprietor of the Battersea enamel works. The diaper with shells pattern is discussed by Bernard Watney. Petition for Patents, ECC Transactions, vol 6 (1966), p 90. He assigns this group as Battersea lids and Birmingham box bases, that were mounted in Birmingham from the Battersea bankrupt stocks. This snuff box is illustrated in the article plate 86a

Category: Decorative Arts / British Ceramics

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John Sandon Bonhams
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Specialist - British Ceramics