Property of a New York Collector

Unmarked, probably Hanau, circa 1870

Cartouche-shaped, with baluster sides, the cover set with six old mine cut diamonds and enameled in translucent royal blue over a wavy engine-turned ground, under foliate cagework, centering an oval portrait miniature of Empress Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, unsigned, within a border set with old mine cut diamonds, further bordered by twenty old mine cut diamonds, the thumb-piece chased with leaves and branches, the sides chased with floral and foliate sprays, the base centering a floral bouquet on a trellis-chased ground, the flange and rim of cover and foot with later scratched stock numbers.

Height 2 inches (5 cm), width 4 1/2 inches (11.4 cm), depth 3 3/4 inches (9.5 cm), approximately 196 dwt., gross.

Provenance:

Private Collection, New York.

Property of a New York Private Collector, Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, October 24 and 27, 1979, lot 96.

Acquired at the above sale by the family of the present owner.

Russian sovereigns followed the practice of their European counterparts by awarding jeweled snuff boxes as gifts. The custom flourished in the eighteenth century during the reigns of Empress Elizabeth (1741–1762) and Empress Catherine II (1762–1796), when the habit of snuff-taking had evolved into an elaborate social ritual, creating strong demand for luxurious snuff boxes. In Russia, the tradition of presenting snuff boxes as imperial gifts endured well into the reign of Nicholas II (1894–1917), long after the fashion for snuff-taking had declined elsewhere in Europe.

During the reign of Alexander II (1855–1881), many of the snuff boxes awarded by the sovereign were supplied by German goldsmiths, who also provided pieces for other European courts. Several examples dating from the third quarter of the nineteenth century, set with the jeweled cypher or portrait of Emperor Alexander II, have appeared at auction, including those sold at Christie’s, London, May 25, 2004, lot 215 (later Sotheby’s, London, June 1, 2021, lot 178); Christie’s, London, June 10, 2010, lot 244; and Hermitage Fine Art, Monaco, December 20, 2024, lot 400.

Empress Maria Alexandrovna (1824–1880), who was German by birth, married the future Emperor Alexander II in 1841 and remained his consort until her death in 1880. She bore eight children, among them the future Emperor Alexander III (1845–1894). Snuff boxes fitted with her diamond-set cypher have also appeared on the international auction market. One notable example—a diamond-set, guilloché enamel and two-color gold Russian imperial presentation snuff box made by Carl Martin Weishaupt und Söhne of Hanau—was sold at Doyle, New York, May 25, 2017, lot 711. Another gold snuff box set with the Empress’s diamond cypher, probably made in Hanau, was sold at Christie’s, New York, October 5, 1983, lot 299, and again at Christie’s, New York, October 26, 2007, lot 24. The latter is now in the Iakobachvili Collection (see Haydn Williams, ed., 19th-Century Snuffboxes: Snuffboxes in the Iakobachvili Collection, Volume II, Monaco, 2025, no. 400).

Snuff boxes fitted with a portrait of the Empress are rarer than those fitted with a portrait of the Emperor, and thus they seldom appear on the market. The portrait miniature on the present snuff box is after the original by Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1806-1873), which was painted in 1857. The original portrait hung in the private apartments of Alexander II in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, before entering the collection of the State Hermitage Museum in 1926 (museum No. ГЭ-7539). The present snuff box was sold by a New York Private Collector at Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, October 24 and 27, 1979, lot 96, where it was acquired by the family of the present owner.