A German 18k gold and mother of pearl snuff box with portrait of Christian-Ludwig II Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
18 kt Gelbgold, Gouache auf Elfenbein. Cylindrical box with a slightly domed lid made from mother of pearl plaques set in moulded 18k gold mountings with a shell shaped push button and column motifs. The inside polished, the lid inset with a gouache on ivory portrait of Duke Christian-Ludwig II in a breastplate, embroidered velvet jacket, ermine trimmed cloak and a blue sash with the Danish Order of the Elephant, to which he was accepted in 1737. No hallmarks. With very minor dot shaped moisture damage to the miniature. H 3.5 cm. Diameter 6 cm. Weight 118.27 g.
Berlin, c. 1743. The box possibly workshop Louis Buyrette Widow; the portrait possibly Johann Harper.
Christian Ludwig II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (Grabow 1683 - 1756 Schwerin) became reigning duke in 1747, after the death of his father Friedrich I. His reign was characterised by a flourishing cultural life. He was a fervent art collector and one of his passions was for shimmering conchyls, for the acquisition of which he built up a large network and appointed various specialists to the court. The archives show that on 4th March 1743 the Duke commissioned the Stockholm-born miniature painter Johann Harper to have four tabatières made, the insides of the lids of which were to be decorated with portraits of the ducal family. One of which was not to be made of solid gold but should have "along the sides cleanly worked mother of pearl and a lid of the same material delicately set in gold... or, if possible and still better and more finely set, whereby the original Smi noble portrait should be used." (translated from the German in Möller/Blübaum, p. 202). The production of the boxes was completed in August 1743 by the Berlin goldsmith Louis Buyrette Witwe, who also worked for King Frederick II of Prussia.
Literature
See Möller/Blübaum, Schimmern aus der Tiefe: Muscheln, Perlen, Nautilus, Staatliches Museum Schwerin 2013, p. 202 ff. fig. 54 almost certainly shows this tabatière in a black-and-white photograph from the 1920s.