A TREASURY OF VERTU: Important Gold Boxes from a Private Family Collection
A TREASURY OF VERTU: Important Gold Boxes from a Private Family Collection
A Meissen porcelain bombé snuff box with gold mounts by Louis Métayer, Amsterdam, 1741
Auction Closed
December 10, 02:29 PM GMT
Estimate
8,000 - 12,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
A Meissen porcelain bombé snuff box with gold mounts by Louis Métayer, Amsterdam, 1741
circular, with Venetian quayside subjects after Melchior Küsel, the box with a continuous frieze above a band of indianische Blumen, the slightly domed cover with views of waterside palazzi to the cover and interior, the underside of the box with figures in a formal garden, the interior richly gilt, reeded gold mounts
5.5 cm., 2 1/8. in. diameter
Anonymous, sale Christie's, Geneva, 11 November 1985, lot 185
No other box with contemporary Amsterdam mounts would appear to be recorded. The mounts on the present example are marked for Louis Métayer, a goldsmith of great standing. From a large family of Huguenot goldsmiths in Rouen, due to religious persecution, he followed his brother Philippe to Amsterdam, where they sometimes collaborated on pieces, with Louis as goldsmith and Philippe as chaser. Interestingly, according to his trade card, Philippe was also a marchand de tabac, with premises on the Kalverstraat (Rijksmuseum, RP-P-OB-26.604). Among surviving gold boxes with Louis Métayer's mark, is an example in the Gilbert Collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum (Charles Truman, The Gilbert Collection of Gold Boxes, vol. I, Los Angeles, 1991, no. 138).