DRESDEN, CIRCA 1750

Details

A GERMAN JEWELLED GOLD-MOUNTED HARDSTONE SNUFF-BOX
DRESDEN, CIRCA 1750
realistically carved as a pug's head from amethyst quartz with ruby cabochon eyes, the cover carved in relief with a boar sow and her piglet in a wooded landscape, with reeded gold mounts and slightly raised scroll thumbpiece
2 1/8 in. (55 mm.) high

Special Notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

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David McLachlan

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Lot Essay

The pug gained particular significance in Europe following the Papal bull of 1738 forbidding Roman Catholics from belonging to Masonic orders. Many Catholics formed themselves into quasi-masonic lodges and took as their symbol the pug dog. In these orders of Möpsen (German for pugs), the ownership of such a box might have replaced the model pug which all initiates carried during lodge meetings. For more information on pug boxes, see A. Somers Cocks/C. Truman, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection - Renaissance jewels, gold boxes and objects de vertu, London, 1984, pp. 270-271. Two other amethystine quartz boxes similarly carved with single pugs are published in S. Grandjean, Les tabatières du musée du Louvre, Paris, 1981, no. 446, and in A. K. Snowman, Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Europe, London, 1966, no. 516.

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