Live Auction 21907Bayreuth: A Connoisseur's Collection of English Silver and Gold Boxes
A GEORGE IV SILVER-GILT SNUFF-BOX SET WITH A MICROMOSAIC
Lot 16

A GEORGE IV SILVER-GILT SNUFF-BOX SET WITH A MICROMOSAIC

BY NATHANIEL MILLS (FL. 1803-1853), BIRMINGHAM, 1828; THE MICROMOSAIC SIGNED 'AGUATI' FOR ANTONIO AGUATTI (D.1826), ROME, CIRCA 1820

Closed7 July 2023

Price Realised

GBP 22,680

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A GEORGE IV SILVER-GILT SNUFF-BOX SET WITH A MICROMOSAIC
BY NATHANIEL MILLS (FL. 1803-1853), BIRMINGHAM, 1828; THE MICROMOSAIC SIGNED 'AGUATI' FOR ANTONIO AGUATTI (D.1826), ROME, CIRCA 1820
Rectangular, the sides and base chased with striated engine-turning, the thumbpiece cast and chased with flowers and scrollwork, the lid inset with a fine Roman micromosaic, signed 'Aguati', depicting the spaniel 'Tawney' lying on a grassy bank, a river, trees and mountains beyond, within an oak leaf border, marked inside and in cover
4 in. (102 mm.) wide
gross weight 11 oz. 15 dwt. (367 gr.)

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 1 November 1990, lot 34.

Specialist note


This micromosaic is after a painting by Johann Wenzel Peter of Tawney, a spaniel belonging to the 6th Duke of Devonshire, in the Roman Campagna in 1819. The painting now hangs at Chatsworth. Born in Karlsbad in 1745, Peter moved to Rome in 1774, where he enjoyed a successful career as a landscape, animal and portrait painter in the neoclassical style. His works are distinguished by their high finish and subtle characterisation. He shared with Stubbs, who also studied in Rome, the neoclassical interest in 'nature red in tooth and claw'. His work was copied by mosaicists and several versions of this mosaic exist. The mosaicist Antonio Aguatti was noted for his innovative use of smalti and his large colour palette. Another version of Tawney attributed to Aguatti is on a box by A. J. Strachan dated 1827, once in the Beach Collection, Florida, sold Christie's, New York, 22 May 2009, lot 27, illustrated in J. H. Gabriel, The Gilbert Collection of Micromosaics, London, 2000, p. 75.