Lot 1058 | Germany | Snuff box with landscape views of Albertine Saxony

SNUFF BOX WITH LANDSCAPE VIEWS OF ALBERTINE SAXONY.

Germany.
Date: Around 1760.
Technique: White and colored enamel on copper. Hinged silver mounting.
Description: Rectangular shape with hinged lid. On the top of the lid a view of Dresden with the
Hofkirche across the Elbe. On the inside of the lid a view of Magdeburg with the church
St. Johannis. On the bottom of the box a view of Pirna with the fortress Sonnenstein. The
sides with views of Meissen, Dessau, Wittenberg and Torgau.
Measurement: 4x9,2x6,7cm.
Mark: Inside a round label of the Galerie J. Kugel, Paris.

Provenance:
Brandenburg private collection. Purchased at the Gallery J. Kugel, Paris.

Literature:
Beaucamp-Markowsky, Barbara: Porzellandosen, Munich 1985. For porcelain boxes with comparable depictions compare no. 113 ff.

All the depictions are very finely painted miniature river landscapes with staffage figures and barge traffic. The two views of the Elbe on the lid show the same ship with a high mast and manned with miniature soldiers. It has hoisted two flags with a black eagle, one with the monogram H.C.N., the other with the date 1756.
On the 29th of August 1756 Prussian troops marched into Saxony under the banner bearing the black eagle. Three days later, the Saxon army was surrounded at Pirna, marking the beginning of the Seven Years' War on the European mainland.
The type of painting suggests that the artist could have been a porcelain painter from the manufactory in Meissen. Similar depictions can also be found on 18th century Meissen porcelain snuff boxes. Furthermore, there are documented cases of employees of the manufactory that, even though forbidden, painted on copper boxes on the side.