Oval, the sides with rectangular panels of white diaper on a blue ground bordered by green trailing foliage and opalescent enamel pearls, the conforming cover centered by an oval enamel plaque depicting a scene from the tragedy Mérope within a gold ribbon-tied laurel border, marked on inside cover, base, and side with charge mark, date letter S, and maker's mark, numbered 207 on the flange and with décharge mark
3³⁄₈ in. (8.5 cm.) long

Anonymous sale; Christie's, Geneva, 19 November 1997, lot 278.
With S.J. Phillips Ltd., London.

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Lot Essay

A Louis XVI snuff-box by L. Lacarrière of 1783-1784, set with an identical enamel miniature, is illustrated in A. Kenneth Snowman, Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Europe, London, 1966, color pl. 423.
Mérope is a five act tragedy written by Voltaire (1694-1778) which premiered in 1743 before appearing in print in 1744. The play is a reworking of an Italian tragedy from 1713, and tells the story of the dowager queen Mérope. While mourning her murdered husband, Mérope blames newcomer to court Egisthe for murdering her son, when he is in fact her long-lost son. Egisthe eventually kills the tyrannical usurper Polyphonte, who had killed his father, and crowns his mother Mérope as queen.