A PARCEL-GILT SILVER AND NIELLO CARTOGRAPHIC SNUFF-BOX

Snuff-boxes engraved with maps of cities and provinces became increasingly popular at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries, as engraved maps became more widely disseminated. Maps of the provenance of Vologda, which also included Velikii Ustiug, were a natural choice for niello artists. A related snuff-box, also decorated with a map of Vologda and statistics for the province is held in the collection of the Hillwood Museum, Washington, D.C (A. Odom, Russian Silver in America: Surviving the Melting Pot, London, 2011, p. 132). A niello cartographic snuff-box, also by Iakov Moiseev and engraved with a map of Vologda Province was sold Christie's, London, 20 November 1997, lot 106.