An enamelled tobacco box with a falcon hunt scene
Polychrome enamel decor on copper with engraved and gilded copper mountings. The outer six faces and the inside of the lid painted with finely rendered exotic figures hunting and playing music. Some cracks to the base and sides. H 3.5, W 6.5, D 5 cm.
Berlin, attributed to Fromery Manufactory, presumably decorated by Isaak Jacob Clauce or Clauze, mid-18th C.
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.
The painted enamel boxes produced in the Fromery workshop were the most famous product from Berlin at the time and were distributed throughout Europe. Pierre Fromery (1679 - 1738) was originally a goldsmith, but later specialised in the production of gilded and enamelled copper and founded a large distribution company for fancy goods (hairbrushes, tobacco boxes, bottles etc.), which was taken over by his son Alexander after his death.
Literature
For more on Clauce see, among others, Baer, Druckgraphische Vorlagen, in: Baer/Baer/Grosskopf-Knaak, Von Gotzkowsky zur KPM. Aus der Frühzeit des friderizianischen Porzellans, Berlin 1986, p. 272 ff.
See also Rückert, Biographische Daten der Meißener Manufakturisten des 18. Jahrhunderts, Munich 1990, p. 141.