A tortoiseshell snuff box with a portrait of Empress Maria Theresia
. Smooth round box made from dark tortoiseshell mounted in 18k gold, with a flat hinged lid. Decorated on all faces with fine trellis pattern ornament in gold piqué point. The lid inset with a finely painted portrait miniature in gouache on a thick ivory plaque depicting the Empress in profile against a monochrome brown background, dressed in a fur-trimmed silk brocade gown with a diamond tiara upon her powdered hair and diamond and pearl corsage brooch. Minor localised losses to the piqué décor, one mounting stud lost, a vertical hairline crack (ca. 15 mm) to the front. The base of the interior painted over with black lacquer. 3.5 x 6 x 5.5 cm. Weight 122.57 g.
Naples, mid-18th C., the portrait Austrian school, after 1744.
Literature
An almost identical portrait illus. in Keil, Die Porträtminiaturen des Hauses Habsburg, Vienna 1999, cat. no. 30. Here with reference to further reading. The miniature is based on a pastel by Jean Etienne Liotard dated to 1744 currently housed in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Braunschweig. A small version in watercolours attributed to Liotard is housed in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in Munich, and a version in gouache on ivory can be found in the Royal Collection in Windsor Castle.