The 'C' couronné poinçon was a tax mark used on any alloy containing copper between March 1745 and February 1749.

This charming objet d'art reflects the taste for the mounting of exotic Asian objects, such as lacquer and porcelain, with finely-crafted gilt bronzes promoted by the marchands-merciers of Paris such as Thomas-Joachim-Hébert and Lazare Duvaux. The marchands-merciers held a monopoly on the import of precious goods from the East, but were forbidden by the guild system from actually creating any finished product. They therefore presided over an extraordinary array of specialized artisans who produced their innovative goods which were always at the forefront of fashion, ranging from the first pieces of furniture to be mounted with lacquer panels in the 1730s, to the exquisite porcelain-mounted pieces created in the 1770s and 1780s. Lazare Duvaux in particular promoted the fashion for mounting Chinese and Japanese porcelain with gilt bronzes in the 1740s and 1750s, and was one of the principal suppliers of mounted porcelains to Madame de Pompadour.

The Margraves of Baden were among the most illustrious and ancient rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, tracing their history back to the 11th century. For centuries, they held great influence over the politics of Central Europe, becoming increasingly wealthier and more powerful. In 1535 the Margraviates split into two branches; the Catholic House of Baden-Baden and the Protestant House of Baden-Durlach. While rulers of the Baden-Baden line built palaces in Baden-Baden, Rastatt and Ettlingen, the Baden-Durlachs set Karlsruhe as their main residence. The most prominent member of the Baden lines was Ludwig-Wilhelm von Baden-Baden (1655-1707), who was nicknamed Türkenlouis for his tremendous successes on the battlefield against the Ottomans during the second half of the seventeenth century. With his wife, Sibylla-Augusta, Dutchess of Sachsen-Lauenburg, they brought a golden age to the small Margraviate of Baden-Baden.

The Baden-Baden line died out in 1771 and its territories passed to the protestant Baden-Durlach members of the family, under the rule of Carl Friedrich, Duke of Baden and Zähringen (1728-1811). With help of his close political connections to the French Republic, Carl Friedrich managed to enlarge his lands by consolidating his fragmented Margraviate and acquiring territories in the Southwest. An enlightened ruler, he was in close contact with some of the greatest minds of his time, including Goethe, Gluck, Herder, and Klopstock. His grandson Karl married Stephanie de Beauharnais, Napoleon’s adopted daughter. During the mid-nineteenth century, the Margraviate became more and more open to liberal ideas introduced from Switzerland and France, and the prosperous city of Baden-Baden developed into a meeting point for the intellectual and political elite. In 1856, Grand Duke Friedrich (1826-1907) married Princess Louise of Prussia, daughter of the future Emperor Wilhelm I, which further enhanced the Margraviate’s importance after the unification of Germany. Their son, Friedrich II succeeded his father in 1907 as the last ruler of the House of Baden, but abdicated in 1918 after a peaceful revolution.
The following years saw the immense family collection being passed down through subsequent generations, until most of it was auctioned off at the Neues Schloss in Baden-Baden between 5 and 21 October, 1995. Interestingly, this was not the first auction in the history of the House of Baden; upon the death of last Baden-Baden Margrave in 1771, his collection was sold in Offenburg in 1775 per the orders of Empress Maria Theresa. Between 11 and 16 July, 1808 another auction was organized to settle the debts of the diocese of Speyer, which had been acquired by Carl Friedrich, Duke of Baden and Zähringen.