An English enamel and gilt-metal Snuff Box, Birmingham, circa 1765
The rectangular enamel cover of this snuff box is decorated with a printed and overpainted European quayside scene in which a perspectival view of a large building is shown, with groups of figures in the foreground, two of whom stand beside a large urn on a pedestal. Another figure sits on the edge of the quay, beside a rigged ship at anchor, with its sails furled. Sailing ships and coastal cliffs can be seen in the distance. The brown-printed decoration is hand-coloured with enamels, the entire scene surrounded by a border of raised white enamel (bianco-sopra-bianco) C-scrolls. The sides and base of the box are finely painted with floral bouquets and sprigs on a white enamel ground. The sides are additionally decorated with a raised white enamel floral-dot-and-trellis design, whilst the base has a raised white enamel double wavy line border. The box has gilt-metal mounts and thumbpiece.
So-called Kauffahrtei scenes depicting merchants and harbours were introduced by Meissen during the 1730s. The subject remained popular on European porcelain throughout the 18th century, although their appearance in printed form on English enamel boxes is uncommon.
In The Early Techniques of Transfer Printing, Colin Wyman quotes from the diary of Lady Shelburne which was written during her visit to Birmingham in 1766:
‘May 16th… At Mr Taylor’s we met again and he made and enamell’d a landscape on top of a box before us which he afterwards gave me as a curiosity for my having seen it done. The method of doing it is this: a stamping instrument managed only by one woman first impressed the picture on paper, which paper is laid even upon a piece of white enamel and rubbed hard with a knife, or instrument like it, till it is marked upon the box. Then there is spread over it with a brush some metallic colour reduced to a fine powder which adheres to the moist part and, by putting it afterwards into an oven for a few minutes, the whole is completed by fixing the colour.‘
Condition: The cover has cracks, most of which are confined to the uppermost (sky) section of the harbour scene. Two tiny sections of the sky have been filled and coloured. The flower painting and bianco-sopra-bianco decoration is attractive and in good order. Turning to the interior, the underside of the cover has been sprayed to disguise the cracks visible on the exterior, and this has discoloured with age. No other restoration. There is a Y-shaped hairline to one corner of the base, and expected surface wear to the corners of the underside. There is patination to the metal mounts, although some of the original gilt remains. The hinged mechanism works well and the cover closes neatly.
Dimensions: Height 3.5 cm; Width 8 cm; Depth 6.3 cm
English Painted Enamels, Therle and Bernard Hughes (Country Life, 1951).
English Porcelain and Enamels 1743-1775, Simon Spero (exhibition catalogue, 2009).
English Enamel Boxes, Susan Benjamin (Macdonald Orbis, 1988).
The Early Techniques of Transfer Printing (Colin Wyman, English Ceramic Circle Transactions, Vol. 10 No. 4, 1979).