Lot 488

Swiss, 77 x 52 x 18 mm, 87 g, circa 1815
An ornamental gold and enamel snuff box "Still Life with Flowers, Musical Instruments and Hunting Weapons" for the Chinese Market
Case: 18k gold and polychrome enamel.
Oval case with all-over opaque light-green and rose-coloured enamelling and with engraved gilt foliage scrolls; the sides with four oval enamel plaques with painted summer flower sprays in curled gold frames; lid and floor are decorated with central enamel medallions in curled frames: a painted basket full of summer flowers, musical instruments and hunting weapons on the lid, a bouquet of rose petals, morning glories and petunias on the floor of the box; all sides are decorated with stylised "taille d'épargne" flower tendrils. Hinged lid with curled rim.
Music was evoked by a variety of instruments, including the lyre, symbol of inspiration and poetic talent. The guitar, the drum and the tambourine also played a role in musical allegory. An open score was sometimes placed at the center of the instruments, or beside them. This pursuit belonged to the seven liberal arts, which embraced all the intellectual disciplines taught since Classical antiquity. It was part of the university course called the quadrivium (the place where four roads meet, in Latin) in which it was grouped with astronomy, arithmetic and geometry as mathematical sciences.
Source: Pieter Friess, The Emergence of the Portable Watch, Patek Philippe Museum, Geneva, 2015, Index Vol. III and IV, p. 147.

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