Antique French Grand Tour Souvenir Snuff or Patch Box, Portrait Miniature of Marie-Antoinette, Signed

Snuff or patch box, Grand Tour souvenir variety from the Victorian or Napoleon III era, c.1850-70s.  The portrait miniature is the type that would have been painted "après", or after a famous painting of this historical figure, and whose likeness was popular after a visit to Versailles or the Louvre, Paris. The form on this one is typically thought to have been a snuff box, or a box that might have come with a rosary inside, probably also ivory beaded. It's been in my collections for decades. Time to downsize. Very good for age and type, you can see there is a fine tight shrinkage hairline visible on the side of bottom half of the box, typical of this material which does shrink over the centuries and cause some shrinkage lines. The really quite beautiful painting is in gouache on natural wafer, hand painted and signed by artist, and is set and preserved well under original cover glass and its brass mount. You can see there is a bit of stain on interior bottom. We'd date this one c.185