Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5

Swiss Gold Musical Snuff Box

About the Item

This special and important Swiss gold music box is chased and engraved with a set of musical instruments surrounded by elaborate swirls of ornate foliage. Embossed with a delightful braided gold design, the two-compartment box features an exquisite oval agate key, which opens a recessed lock in the base of the box. Such a box would have been a prized possession and would have been able to fit neatly into a gentleman’s waistcoat pocket. Ingenious miniature portable devices, musical snuff boxes such as this one were called carillons à musique. Highly desired objects of status and crafted primarily in Switzerland, they influenced the development and popularity of all music box production in the 19th century, circa 1820.
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 0.88 in (2.24 cm)Width: 3.25 in (8.26 cm)Depth: 2 in (5.08 cm)
  • Style:
    Other (In the Style Of)
  • Materials and Techniques:
  • Place of Origin:
  • Period:
  • Date of Manufacture:
    circa 1820
  • Condition:
  • Seller Location:
    New Orleans, LA
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 29-95491stDibs: LU89118265693

More From This Seller

View All
Swiss Enamel And Gold Musical Snuff Box
Located in New Orleans, LA
This exceptional 19th-century gold box appears at first glance be an exquisite snuff box adorned with a charming Swiss enamel vista encircled by a multitude of natural pearls. A quick wind of the key, however, reveals the complex mechanism hidden inside, and the box plays a wistful tune. Once known as carillons à musique...
Category

Antique 19th Century Swiss Other Snuff Boxes and Tobacco Boxes

Materials

Gold, Enamel

Swiss Gold and Enamel Musical Vinaigrette
Located in New Orleans, LA
A musical movement distinguishes this wonderful early 19th-century gold vinaigrette box. The vessel is covered in delicate engraving highlighted by bl...
Category

Antique 19th Century Swiss Neoclassical Decorative Boxes

Materials

Metal

19th Century Swiss Gold Musical Vinaigrette
Located in New Orleans, LA
This early 19th century Swiss gold vinaigrette has the charming addition of a musical mechanism. The entire box is crafted of 14-karat yellow gold envelo...
Category

Antique 19th Century Swiss Neoclassical Decorative Boxes

Materials

Gold, Enamel

Swiss Multicolored Gold Snuff Box
Located in New Orleans, LA
This exceptional multicolored gold snuffbox is a work of impeccable Swiss artistry. Flawless hand-chased and engraved gold elements adorn this rare 19th century box, and dynamic flor...
Category

Antique 19th Century Swiss Snuff Boxes and Tobacco Boxes

Materials

Gold

Swiss Multicolored Gold Snuff Box
$7,710 Sale Price
40% Off
Silver-Gilt Musical Snuff Box by François Nicole
Located in New Orleans, LA
This exceptional Swiss silver-gilt musical snuff box was crafted by the famed François Nicole. At first glance, the diminutive piece appears to simpl...
Category

Antique 19th Century Swiss Neoclassical Snuff Boxes and Tobacco Boxes

Materials

Silver

Musical Jewelry and Sewing Casket
Located in New Orleans, LA
This charming musical jewelry and sewing box is a work of sublime artistry. Almost certainly German or Austrian in origin and crafted of deep, ebonized...
Category

Early 20th Century Austrian Other Decorative Boxes

Materials

Multi-gemstone

Musical Jewelry and Sewing Casket
$5,910 Sale Price
40% Off

You May Also Like

Antique Five Faces Snuff Box
Located in Baltimore, MD
Unique Georgian snuff box depicting five faces and inspired by Japanese netsuke designs. Carved from a tree root, it is fitted with a lidded metal compartment...
Category

Antique 19th Century British Decorative Boxes

Materials

Base Metal

Antique Austrian Silver Table Snuff Box
Located in Jesmond, Newcastle Upon Tyne
An exceptional, fine and impressive antique Austrian silver table snuff box; an addition to our ornamental silverware collection. This excepti...
Category

Antique Early 1900s Austrian Snuff Boxes and Tobacco Boxes

Materials

Sterling Silver

Antique Snuff Box of a Head of a Boy
Located in Baltimore, MD
The charming boy looks at you with a sweet smile, his container full of snuff to make you happy. He is carved of fruitwood, the lid lined with tortoise shell.
Category

Antique 19th Century British Decorative Boxes

Materials

Mahogany, Tortoise Shell

19th Century Restauration Snuff Box with Micromosaic
Located in Paris, FR
Small rectangular Restauration snuff box crafted in gold. The hinged lid is decorated with an oval micromosaic representing St. Peter's Square in Rome. Micromosaic is set in a gold s...
Category

Antique Early 19th Century French Charles X Tobacco Accessories

Materials

Gold

Gold and Agate Snuff Box Belonging to Anne, First Duchess of Buccleuch
Located in Lymington, Hampshire
This oval gold snuff box is inscribed with a crest of ‘a stag trippant’ within mantling of upright ostrich plumes tied with a bow, all below a ducal coronet and above a cypher of the entwined initials ‘B.A.B.’ for Anne of Buccleuch. English, circa 1670. Provenance: Anne, 1st Duchess of Buccleuch Anne Scott, 1st Duchess of Buccleuch (1651-1732) was a wealthy Scottish peeress. After her father died when she was a few months old, and her sisters by the time she was 10, she inherited the family’s titles. She was married, at 12 years old, to James, 1st Duke of Monmouth, the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II, then 14. Following the king’s death in February 1685, James spearheaded an anti-Catholic revolt to depose the new king, James II, and claim the throne from his uncle. The brief Monmouth Rebellion ended in defeat and James, by then Duke of Monmouth and Buccleuch, was executed for treason. The Duchess had six children by Monmouth, and a further three by her second husband, Charles, 3rd Baron Cornwallis, whom she married in 1688. She died in 1732 and was succeeded by her grandson, Francis, Earl of Dalkeith. The style of chasing used on this box is very reminiscent of a signed piece in the Gilbert...
Category

Antique 1670s English Snuff Boxes and Tobacco Boxes

Materials

Agate, Gold

Fine Antique English South Staffordshire or Battersea Enamel Snuff Box
Located in Lambertville, NJ
An excellent quality late 18th or early 19th century Battersea enamel snuff or patch box. The pink enamel background with white enamel lattice and a raised gold around the hand paint...
Category

Antique Early 19th Century English Regency Snuff Boxes and Tobacco Boxes

Materials

Bronze, Enamel

Recently Viewed

View All