Lot 184

Charles Colins & Söhne / Johann Daniel Berneaud

Bouquet of Summer Flowers

An exquisite and extremely rare Hanau snuff box in three-colour gold with polychrome enamelling "Bouquet of Summer Flowers"

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Rectangular box with round corners, hinged lid with oval enamel miniature of a vase with a bouquet of summer flowers, in a narrow blue enamel border surrounded by chased flowers and volutes on a sable ground, partly decorated with blue enamelling. The back and the sides are engine-turned and exquisitely engraved with volutes; the round corners are ornamented with chased butterflies.
A nearly identical snuff box by Charles Colins & Söhne, Hanau is held in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Johann Daniel Berneaud (born 1773 in Hanau, died 1861 in Hanau) trained as an enamel painter in Geneva and worked with Antoine Carteret for some time. Around 1814 he returned to his native town of Hanau and worked for several manufacturers of gold goods. Berneaud decorated a number of gold boxes with his paintings; he favoured allegorical motifs and flowers. It is said that Goethe was one of Berneaud’s admirers. This was also the time when Berneaud began receiving commissions from the Turkish sultanate.
The Huguenot goldsmith Charles Colin (1749-1817) married Anna Petronella Souchay (1753-1851), daughter of the goldsmith Marc Andre Souchay (1730-1811), in Hanau on 15 January 1776. They had thirteen children and their son Jacques Charles married Jeanne Anne Thérèse Rémond in 1811. The two companies Charles Colins & Söhne of Hanau and Jean-George Rémond of Geneva and Hanau are known worldwide for their wonderful gold boxes.