A GEORGE III ORMOLU-MOUNTED CASKET SET WITH CHINESE EXPORT REVERSE-GLASS PAINTED PANELS

A comparable George III tea caddy set with Chinese reverse-glass painted panels was sold from the collection of Marjorie Wiggin Prescott, Christie's, New York, 31 January 1981, lot 75 and was resold at Sotheby's, London, 8 March 1985, lot 51 for £13,500 (including premium). A Chinese Export engraved and pierced mother-of-pearl casket, mounted with reverse-glass painted panels to each side from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Basil Ionides, Buxted Park, Sussex is illustrated in M. Jourdain & R. Soame Jenyns, Chinese Export Art in the Eighteenth Century, Middlesex, 1967, p. 134, fig. 126, raising the possibility that this casket also belonged to The Hon. Nellie Ionides and has passed through the family by descent to David Montagu, Lord Swaythling.