A magnificent jewelled gold and pietra dura 'Steinkabinett' box, Johann...

oval, all sides inlaid in Zellenmosaik with 92 scale-shaped hardstone specimens, each with a small number engraved above on a silver ground for an identification of the hardstone, the lid centred with an oval en grisaille enamel plaque of Minerva visiting the muses, based on an engraving after Charles Dominique Joseph Eisen (1720-1778), within a rose-cut diamond-set frame, the outer border formed of fifteen s emi-precious stones, among them garnet, amethyst, rock-crystal, citrine, carnelian, as well as a pearl, interspersed with inlaid carnelian and bloodstone bands and forget-me-nots flanked by levelled simulated pearls, the base with a similar outer border and centred with an oval Meissen porcelain plaque representing the Meissen porcelain factory in the Albrechtsburg, apparently unmarked

8.7 cm, 3 3/8 in. wide

Condition Report:
A glamorous box in good condition;
some tarnishing around silver mounts; the hinge and the mounts around the lid unusually formed of both rose and yellow gold, possibly as a result of restoration; specimen no. 77 with a natural flaw to centre; one small area of restoration to the bottom of the porcelain plaque to base

Provenance:
Neuburg collection, circa 1935

Verry collection, London, circa 1939

According to Berry-Hill, part of the collections of King Farouk of Egypt (1953); the box does not feature in the 1954 sale catalogue