Fabergé, Gold Boxes & Objets de Luxe
Fabergé, Gold Boxes & Objets de Luxe
A musical gold and enamel snuff box for the Ottoman market, Rémond, Lamy, Mercier & Co., Geneva, circa 1815/1820
Lot Closed
November 15, 01:32 PM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 CHF
Lot Details
Description
A musical gold and enamel snuff box for the Ottoman market, Rémond, Lamy, Mercier & Co., Geneva, circa 1815/1820
rectangular with rounded corners, the lid finely enamelled en plein with a flower still life including peonies, lilies, roses, carnations and ivy on an opalescent pale pink enamel ground over moiré engine-turning, within wavy gold and opaque white enamel borders and a frame of fan-shaped ornaments in translucent dark red enamel alternating with chased gold foliage picked out in white and blue enamel, on an opaque turquoise enamel ground, the sides decorated with similar borders above translucent red enamel panels centred with hexagonal plaques enamelled with 'Bosphorus' landscapes, taille d'épargne corners, the centre of the base decorated in translucent scarlet red enamel over radiating moiré engine-turning, maker's mark, post-1815 town mark, poorly struck control mark
8.2cm., 3¼in. wide
Two musical snuff boxes with the same maker's mark, both enamelled with mythological subjects as opposed to flower still lives, the sides enamelled in a similar colour combination, previously belonged to the collection of His Heighness Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan (sold Sotheby's London, 18 June 1979, lot 64 and 65; and Christie's London, 22 September 2022, lot 178 and 179).
The short-lived informal partnership of Rémond, Lamy & Co. was formed following the dissolution of the Geneva company of Guidon, Rémond, Gide & Co. on 1 January 1801. That company had been registered in 1792 to last for ten years and the termination was followed by a division of the partners who, on the same day, opened on the one hand, Rémond, Lamy & Co. and on the other, Guidon, Gide & Blondet fils, thus dividing the original partners between those of Geneva origin and those who had come from Hanau. Although the partnership of Rémond, Lamy & Co. only lasted three years, a remarkable number of boxes with their mark survive showing that despite production having been very high, the quality and innovative nature of the boxes was extraordinary with no two identical.