Featured An unusual snuff box

Not a big fan of ivory objects but i made an impulse buy on this one.
I have a few things that i know for sure, the rest is just a lot of guesswork so im hoping for some imput from the community as the object touches a lot of fields.

The snuff box is made out of ivory, with what looks like tortoise shell rims, they go dark in the shadow, red hue in the sunlight, visible in the pictures too, you can tell the direction of the light as it changes, photos were not taken all at once.
The miniature is completely enclosed , no way of opening it up , no way of telling if it is signed but i think its an original from that era. If it goes with the snuff box or even the frame that's another question.
The frame seems a bit wide and it covers some things. Most visible thing missing is in the bottom right part. A rosette with a crown that seems to be the top part of an military order obscured by the frame.
Maybe the militaria fans can identify it and even if he is wearing a military coat. The piece came from Austria, it was there 4 a very long time, so im hoping the sitter was an Austrian too.
Time period i would guess 1770-1780, but its a guess.

The rim tested positive for 14k, negative for 18, but it took some time, for a bit it looked like a positive on the 18K too. Maybe something in the middle ?
The case is 7 cm in diameter, height of 2.2, the frame about half a centimeter wide and the miniature itself is 4 cm by 3. Really tiny thing.
Im sorry, im not good with the inches system.

 

https://www.antiques-delaval.com/en...ortrait-gentlemen-aristocrats-eighteenth.html

something similar...


https://jenikirbyhistory.getarchive.net/media/michael-gabriel-fredersdorf-571977

similar mfg...

the portrait may fit your guesstimate era......the box , somewhat later.

what's the purple material inside..?

one would think the gold would be marked , for such a fine item as this ??

France seems likely...... where did you get it ?

just spitballing here , to get the ball rolling !!

 

nice photo's & description ......... for a Newbie that is !! ...

 

Its velvet.

As for the gold, all sorts of things going on, as the British were the only ones from that time that really took marking seriously. More often a guy would pay for 18k gold and had the jeweler pinch a little on the side.

I got it in Austria, there were 2 other items from the same source. A solid gold sigil, solid gold handle I mean, and a lady's make-up kit in solid gold with painted ivory inserts.
Way out of my price range. Sadly no info on who the sitter was, or if it even belonged to the same family.

 

This is so pretty

 

Brits often didn’t mark, too.

 

Nice box , But With a detachable lid, probably not for snuff. Maybe a patch box, or comfits?

 

Could be..
Given the gentleman's portrait on the lid, it would make more sense that the item belonged to a lady, maybe to his wife.
Also the inside seems to have been velvet lined in its entirety, only the top part remaining.

 

then... not snuff fer sure..

 

A little bit of trivia after giving up on trying to get the frame to move.
It wont, no clue on how its fixed to the lid, but there is absolutely no movement at all. Any type of hide or animal glue would have at leased weakened by now. Maybe some pins through the lid . The velvet is in the way on the inside , something is moving under there, like an dry piece of leather, but no pin heads.
Under magnification all around I found a thin piece of paper between the frame and the glass, a nice 18th century solution to create a moisture free seal . Seems to have worked well, as the inside looks pristine.
Sadly i have an itch that there is a signature under there, but I see no way of getting to it...
That would resolve the mystery of the military award too.
Pretty much my goal right now is to try to identify the sitter. Starting with the type of coat he is wearing, if in fact it is a military coat. But first i have to narrow it down to a country.

 

I 4 1 see no military dress here....

 

Look closely at the left side of his chest, lower. Right next to the rim. There is a ribbon in the form of a red rosette and suspended from it a crown, the top of a military award. Just like now, there were strict rules on how you wore them. They don't usually go with civilian clothes.

 

Nice investigative work! A piece of paper or playing card was common backing on miniatures. The Gibbes Museum has an extensive collection database and wonderful articles about how they are made.

I'm not a medal expert. The Legion of Honour French medal has a crown and red rosette, but was used from 1804 onward. Belgium also has rosettes and crowns but also I think from 1800s on. Men's fashion changes more slowly, but he looks more 1700s than that, lacking the collar and wearing a clubbed and powdered wig.

 

Georgian, fer sure.

Debora

 

I still have my eye on Austria, and it is a huge problem.
Because not only that the main army was split into branches with different color uniforms, like infantry, cavalry, guards, artillery, but the Croatian regiments wore different uniforms then the Hungarian and Austrian ones.
Even more, we are talking of an period in time when the Austrian Emperor was still the Holly Roman Emperor, a collection of german states, each with its own army , uniforms and award system.
Even more complicated is that he was a nobleman. The officer class was still the nobleman class. Not all noblemen were officers, but pretty much pre French Revolution, or outside the French after the revolution, almost all of the officers were also noblemen.
And they had a little bit of leeway on tailoring their uniforms. That's how Murat ended up looking like a mix between Liberace, Armani and a peacock.
But it makes sense that a youngish man would have sat for his portret wearing the uniform if he had one.

Looking at the portret closely, i found that the accents in the coat were done with gold paint, and that above the medal there is a roundish patch that holds a sigil of some sort, a monogram, a symbol , maybe a regimental symbol . So basically im looking for a red coat with gold wire accents in the front and a gold wire patch seal of some sort. Plus the award itself.
Sadly i cant seem to be able to get clearer pictures of the miniature, as the glass is basically a lens.