An 18th century German gold and amethystine quartz pug dog box

Dresden circa 1750, with later Swedish 18 carat gold marks

Footnotes

Provenance
A private Swedish collection.

For a very similar pug box with turned alert head and curled tail, see Grandjean et al, The James A de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, Gold Boxes and Miniatures of the Eighteenth Century, cat. 10, p. 38, inv. W1/34/5**, where the natural colours within the stone have similarly been used to great effect to highlight the head and the fur; it also has a very similar wavy gold hinge mount.

There are other boxes with similarly carved alert reclining pugs with curled tails, though here the cushion bases are the more dominant features; the Royal Collection, RCIN 4048, and the Rijksmuseum, see plate 649, p.314, Snowman, Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Europe (Woodbridge 1990).

The present lot forms part of a select group of carved hardstone animal and figural snuff boxes where the colours and textures within the stone are used to great effect. See these rooms, Burton Collection, 18th June 2014, lot 7, a horse's head.

Charlie Truman points out in his note to Cat.67, The Gilbert Collection of Gold Boxes, p.195 (LA 1991), that these boxes are attributed to Dresden because of the similarity to the models produced at the Meissen factory. Furthermore, Dresden was a centre for skilled hardstone carving.

A fine collection of similar boxes was sold by Baron de Redé and Baron Guy de Rothschild, Sotheby's 25th May 1975, lots 10-27, including ram dudlesacks, a figure of Polichinelle, a cow, a goat, cats, lambs, a tortoise, a chicken, a squirrel, a horse's head and various dogs. The Hermitage in St Petersburg holds several German agate snuff boxes, including mocha agate twin lions, Inv Э-4035 and a striped agate lion, Inv Э-4146.