A RARE GOLD-MOUNTED ENAMEL SNUFF-BOX

Pierre Theremin flourished between 1793-1801. In 1801 Theremin supplied four gold snuff-boxes to the Imperial Court. The enamelled scene on the cover of the present box is after an inverse print of Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun's oil painting La paix ramenant l'Abondance of 1780, which was her entry piece to the Académie Royale. It was displayed at the Paris Salon after her admittance in 1783. Pierre Theremin re-used this scene for the decoration of another Russian box in the Geneva style, also dated 1800 (see A. von Solodkoff, Russian Gold and Silverwork, Fribourg, 1981, pp. 152-[153], fig. 200). Serge Grandjean (Les tabatières du musée du Louvre, Paris, 1981, no. 526) lists another box, 1799, by P. Theremin in the Hermitage and one in the Louvre. A snuff-box with the same enamelled scene, but different border was sold at Christie's, London, 7 December 2004, lot 73.