A gold and enamel snuff box, Nicolas-Auguste Delions, Paris, 1776

A gold and enamel snuff box, Nicolas-Auguste Delions, Paris, 1776

oval, the lid centred with an oval en grisaille enamel plaque painted with putti flanking an altar of love, on a pink background within green enamel entrelac-de-rubans frame, on an anthracite enamel ground decorated with a fine paillon pattern of crescent moons, green stylised tulips and red beads, framed by a border of small cartouches chased with shells and red flowers alternating with green entrelac-de-rubans bands, the sides and base similarly decorated, the sides further chased with dividers of laurel-hung pilasters on a sablé ground, maker’s mark, charge and discharge mark of Jean Bertin Fouache (1774-1780), Paris date letter N for 1776, later French control marks

6.8 cm., 2⅝in. wide