Lot 148 Dα

KPM produced several snuff boxes with portraits of Friedrich II, presumably ordered by the King to give as gifts. A further, almost identical box with a portrait of the King in an armchair inside the lid is illustrated in Beaucamp-Markowski. Lenz also lists an oval box with similar relief decor of putti in flight in his list of fancy goods. He describes these motifs as copies after François Boucher's "Livre des Arts". The pose in which the King is depicted appears more familiar than representative, and this portrait type was developed by the painter Johann Georg Ziesenis in a work depicting the King painted for his sister Duchess Philippine Charlotte von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel in 1763.

The exceptional decor of this snuff box has been attributed to Isaak Jacob Clauce (1728-1803), one of the finest painters of miniatures and enamels of his era. He received his training in Augsburg from 1739 - 1747 under the miniature painter and engraver Gustav Andreas Wolfgang. Following his apprenticeship, he was active as a freelance enamel painter, primarily of boxes, in Berlin until 1753 when he was offered a position in the Meissen porcelain manufactory. He returned to Berlin in 1756 following the Prussian occupation of Saxony, where Gotzkowsky prided himself on having secured "the famous miniaturist, Mr Clause" for his manufactory in Berlin. Clause remained at the manufactory, which later became KPM, and advanced to become head of the painting studio in 1789.