Live Auction 12030OPULENCE .Silver . Gold Boxes . 19th Century Furniture & Works of Art
AN ITALIAN GOLD-MOUNTED TORTOISESHELL AND MOTHER-OF-PEARL INLAID SNUFF-BOX
Lot 11

AN ITALIAN GOLD-MOUNTED TORTOISESHELL AND MOTHER-OF-PEARL INLAID SNUFF-BOX

PROBABLY NAPLES, WITH LATER FRENCH MOUNTS, CIRCA 1760

Closed29 November 2016

Price Realised

GBP 8,125

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AN ITALIAN GOLD-MOUNTED TORTOISESHELL AND MOTHER-OF-PEARL INLAID SNUFF-BOX
PROBABLY NAPLES, WITH LATER FRENCH MOUNTS, CIRCA 1760
cartouche shaped box, decorated to the centre with coloured mother-of-pearl and gold inlay depicting a colourful scene of trees and flowers around a fountain, with birds amidst the foliage and scrolling gold borders, the sides and base similarly decorated
3 in. (75 mm.) wide

Specialist note

The technique of inlaying tortoiseshell with mother-of-pearl, gold and silver probably originated in Naples towards the end of the 16th Century and, judging by the number of contemporary references to the Neapolitan piqué work and surviving pieces bearing the signatures of Neapolitan craftsmen, Naples appears to have remained the centre of production, certainly until the eighteenth Century.