AN 18TH CENTURY GERMAN GOLD, JEWELLED AND AMETHYSTINE QUARTZ PUG DOG SNUFF BOX C. 1750

AN 18TH CENTURY GERMAN GOLD, JEWELLED AND AMETHYSTINE QUARTZ PUG DOG SNUFF BOX C. 1750

Berlin or Dresden, the body of the box realistically carved from hard stone quartz in the form of a reclining dog resting on a cushion, the darker purple veins in the stone used to highlight the muzzle, the hinged base with gold mount and diamond and gem set thumb piece,

7cm in length

For a comparable box at auction see Christie's, New York, 19 April 2002, lot 39, sold $40,000.

For a similar pug box see Grandjean et al, The James A de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, Gold Boxes and Miniatures of the Eighteenth Century, cat. 10, p. 38, inv. W1/34/5**, where the natural colours within the stone have similarly been used to great effect to highlight the head and the fur.

There are other boxes with similarly carved alert reclining pugs with curled tails on cushion bases, see the Royal Collection, RCIN 4048, and the Rijksmuseum, see plate 649, p.314, Snowman, Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Europe (Woodbridge 1990).