John Sandon
Consultant
Lot 195
An interesting early to mid-18th century white metal-mounted oak snuff box, circa 1710 - 1750
31 January 2019, 11:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £2,375 inc. premium
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An interesting early to mid-18th century white metal-mounted oak snuff box, circa 1710 - 1750
Of oval form, the lid with white metal mount engraved with Charles II hiding in the Boscobel oak, an angel offering him the Crown, a pair of horsemen in the landscape below, and the motto 'SACRA IOVI QUERCUS', the underside with an oval mount engraved with the words 'Passive / Obedience & ? / Non-Resistance / Restor'd in ye year / 1710', 7.5cm wide x 5.5cm deep x 1.5cm high, (2 1/2in wide x 2in deep x 0 1/2in high)
Footnotes
Provenance:
John David Drummond (1907-2002), 13th Viscount Strathallan, 17th Earl of Perth, Stobhall Castle, Perthshire
Sold Bonhams, Edinburgh, 'Stobhall - The Property of Viscount Strathallan', 2 May 2012, Lot 93
Several boxes of this type are known, commemorating Charles II's escape from capture – by hiding in an oak tree – after the Battle of Worcester in 1651. The words 'sacra iovi qvercvs' mean 'Oak Sacred to Jupiter', a reference also found in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The other inscription is a reference to the doctrine of obedience, or non-resistance to government even when resistance is justified, which was a prevalent theme amongst doctrinal thinkers in the later 17th and early 18th centuries, and which became one of the central tenets of Jacobite ideology.
Although many are dated around 1710, and often described as having been made in the reign of Queen Anne, these boxes were probably Jacobite objects, possibly made as late as 1745 and the Jacobite Rebellion when Charles Stuart attempted to regain the British throne. They were probably intended as Royalist mementoes or signs of support for the cause which floundered after the Jacobite's final defeat at the Battle of Culloden. Charles Stuart, much like his predecessor, found himself escaping persecution under various guises before returning back to France after the battle in 1746. Some believe that the original Boscobel oak tree in which Charles II hid was used to make these boxes and other royal momentoes: a descendant now marks its site.
Similar boxes – all with apparently unmarked silver mounts – sold Bonhams, 27 January 2015, Lot 269 [£5,250]; Christie's, New York, 20 May 2015, Lot 330 [$6,250] and London, 9 December 2011, Lot 472 [£4,500]