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A Volkstedt silver-gilt-mounted circular snuff box, circa 1762-64 image 1
A Volkstedt silver-gilt-mounted circular snuff box, circa 1762-64 image 2
A Volkstedt silver-gilt-mounted circular snuff box, circa 1762-64 image 3
A Volkstedt silver-gilt-mounted circular snuff box, circa 1762-64 image 4
Lot 39

A Volkstedt silver-gilt-mounted circular snuff box, circa 1762-64

5 July 2011, 10:30 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £13,800 inc. premium

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A Volkstedt silver-gilt-mounted circular snuff box, circa 1762-64

Painted in a pale palette with hunting scenes, the side with four vignettes depicting two hares, a wolf and a squirrel, the base with a building, the cover with a recumbent stag in a landscape with distant buildings, the inside cover with a half-length portrait of a huntress holding a rifle with a hound, wavy silver-gilt mounts, 9cm diam., pitchfork mark and ML in underglaze-blue to base

Footnotes

Literature:
Beaucamp-Markowsky 1988, no. 75;

Exhibited:
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, c. 1988-2003;
London, Gilbert Collection, Somerset House, 2003-2008;
Barnard Castle, Co. Durham, The Bowes Museum, 2008-2010

The ML monogram probably stands for the founder of the Volkstedt manufactory, Georg Heinrich Macheleid (1723-1801) (see Christoph Fritzsche, 'Wann wurden die Porzellanmanufakturen des 18. Jahrhunderts im Heiligen Römischen Reich Deutscher Nation gegründet?', in Keramos 202 (2008), p. 11). Macheleid, a theologian and arcanist, was granted a charter to establish the factory on 4th October 1762 by the reigning Prince (Fürst) Johann Friedrich von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, who also became a shareholder in the enterprise. He resigned in 1764 following the death of the prince.

Several letters from Prince Johann Friedrich to the managers of the factory refer to the production of snuff boxes. In one dated 27 November 1762, the prince writes "I would like to return some snuff boxes and take others in exchange which are more pleasing to me". In December of the same year he wrote that he desired an especially finely painted snuff box, and requested the "Honorable Gentleman of the Company" to inform him of the cost (quoted by Beaucamp-Markowsky 1988, p. 147).

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