A George III silver-gilt snuff box John Hutson, London 1782

A George III silver-gilt snuff box John Hutson, London 1782 Circular with pull of cover engraved with the arms of George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney as Baron Macartney, with moulded rim, with plain side to a moulded foot, diameter 8.6cm, weight 6.7oz. Footnotes: George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney, KB, PC (1737 - 1806) was a British diplomat, politician and colonial administrator who served as the governor of Grenada, Madras and the Cape Colony. He was also the first British ambassador to China. He is remembered for his observation following Britain's victory in the Seven Years' War and subsequent territorial expansion that Britain had 'a vast Empire, on which the sun never sets'. He was born in 1737 as the only son of George Macartney, High Sheriff of Antrim and Elizabeth Winder. Macartney descended from a Scottish family with origins in Ireland. He graduated from Trinity College Dublin, in 1759. He was appointed envoy extraordinary to Russia in 1764 where he negotiated an alliance between Great Britain and Russia with Catherine II. In 1768, he returned to the Irish House of Commons as a Member of Parliament for Armagh Borough, in order to discharge the duties of Chief Secretary for Ireland. On resigning this office, he was knighted. In 1775, he became governor of the British West Indies and was created Baron Macartney in the Peerage of Ireland in 1776. He was elected to a seat in the British parliament (Bere Alston) from 1780 to 1781. Macartney was the governor of Grenada from 1776 to 1779. During his governance, the island was attacked in July 1779, by the French royal fleet of the Comte d'Estaing. Macartney was then the governor of Madras from 1781 to 1785. It was a during this time that idea of a police force for Madras was thought of. He negotiated the Treaty of Mangalore which brought an end to the Second Anglo-Mysore War in 1784. Macartney declined the Governor-Generalship of India and the British territories administered by the British East India Company and returned to Britain in 1786. He was created Earl Macartney in the Irish peerage in 1792, he was appointed the first ambassador of Britain to Qing China. He led the Macartney Embassy to Beijing in 1792, with a large British delegation on board a 64-gun man-of-war. The embassy was ultimately not successful in its primary aim to open trade with China, although numerous secondary purposes were attained, including a first-hand assessment of the strength of the Chinese empire. The embassy returned to Britain in 1794 without obtaining any concession from China. However, the mission could be construed as a success because it brought back detailed observations. Macartney was expected to lead an embassy to Japan after he completed his mission to China, but his hopes of being able to proceed to Japan were ended by the confirmation when he returned to Canton of news of the outbreak of war with France and consequently of the vulnerability of his ships to attack by French cruisers operating from Batavia. On his return from a confidential mission to Italy in 1795, he was raised to the British peerage as Baron Macartney, of Parkhurst in the County of Surrey and Auchinleck in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, and at the end of 1796 was appointed governor of the newly acquired territory of the Cape Colony, where he remained until ill health compelled him to resign in November 1798. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing