Lot 63

Swiss, 81 x 57 x 19 mm, circa 1810
A remarkable diamond-studded gold enamel snuff box "Aeneas, Anchises and Ascanius fleeing the burning city of Troy"
Case: 20K gold, illegible case maker’s mark.
Oval case, all sides with engine-turned pattern and translucent cobalt blue enamelling, hinged lid with opaque polychrome miniature painting, mythological picture of the escape of Aeneas: Aeneas, accompanied by his son Ascanius, carries his father Anchises on his shoulders through a temple with diamond-studded columns, in the background the burning city of Troy and ships in the port.
Lid and base with a circular white and blue geometric Champlevé enamel band. Sides with a vase pattern on black ground. The edge of the lid with a circular blue and black enamel palmetto frieze; base with central round medallion: a harp with floral ornaments on black ground, white foliage border.
Aeneas, founder of ancient Rome
Homer’s Iliad mentions the escape of Aeneas from the burning city of Troy and his journey westward.
Powerful Troy on the River Scamander had withstood the Grecian siege for 10 years, but the cunning of Odysseus brought about its downfall and only a few of the Trojans escaped from the burning city with their lives. One of them was Aeneas, son of Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite. His mother sent Aeneas a warning in his dream; Aeneas wakes in the night and hears the fighting. He rushes to get his father Anchises, his wife Creusa and his son Ascanius so that they can escape from the city. Anchises refuses to leave but when he sees a flame burning over the head of his grandson without hurting the boy, he accepts the omen and agrees to go. Anchises is blind and paralysed, so Aeneas carries his father on his shoulders; he holds Ascanios by the hand but as they rush through the buring streets, they lose Creusa in the commotion. Aeneas never found his wife again.
Source: http://www.mythentor.de/roemer/aeneas.htm, as of 09/16/2013