Antique Napoleon III French Souvenir Box, Ivory, Portrait Miniature up Top, Marie-Antoinette
Snuff or rosary 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 pocket watch 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. Good to very good for age and type, you can see there is an old chip which was well-repaired long before I acquired it, by the pushbutton opener. It's very stable. Also, there is an age hairline visible on the top of the box, typical of this material which does shrink over the centuries and cause some shrinkage lines. It is a heavy box for its size, the material is quite thick. The painting is in gouache on natural wafer, hand painted, and is set and preserved well under