Johann Christian Neuber was born in Neuwernsdorf in the Ore mountains, and in 1752 he was apprenticed to Johann Friedrich Trechaon, a goldsmith of Swedish origin. Ten years later he became master goldsmith and burger of Dresden, succeeding Heinrich Taddel as director of the Grünes Gewölbe, which had been founded in 1723 as the luxurious treasure chamber of Augustus the Strong of Poland and Saxony to form an extensive collection of objets d’art from baroque to classicism. Before 1775 Neuber was also appointed court jeweller. One of his most famous objects in larger scale is a side table inlaid with 128 hardstones given by Frederick Augustus III, Elector of Saxony, to the Baron de Breteuil in 1780 to celebrate the peace of Teschen (now in the Musee du Louvre).

Neuber advertised a wide range of small objects made from inlaid hardstones for ladies and gentlemen. Not only was he a visionary genius in terms of the aesthetics of these gold boxes, cane handles, carnet de bals etc., but he also had a strong scientific interest. Both lapidary and amateur scientist, Neuber had even rented several quarries in Saxony to pursue his fascination with hardstones found in local mines, which had been of economic importance to Saxony since the beginning of the eighteenth century. For many of his precious boxes, Neuber used a broad variety of locally-mined stones, such as agate from Schlottwitz or ‘starling’ stone from Chemnitz and sometimes he would even combine these with more exotic hardstones such as Egyptian porphyry or lapis lazuli from Afghanistan (for example in a magnificent hardstone gold box with an architectural perspective of galleried arches formed of agate, chrysophrase and bloodstone, surrounding a lapis lazuli table on porphyry ground, from La Collection Ribes I, Sotheby's Paris, 11 December 2019, lot 59).

Both Neuber’s decorative Zellenmosaik boxes and the portable mineralogical Galanterien, the so-called Steinkabinette, also used as royal gifts, were disseminated across Europe by wealthy tourists visiting Dresden after the Seven Years’ War had ended in 1763, bringing the city back to its old splendour as the capital of one of the richest provinces in Germany.

The altar of love decorating the present lot can also be found on another circular slightly earlier box by Neuber with a ground inlaid in radiating hardstone marquetry (see Kugel, op. cit., no. 81, p. 348).