An extremely rare Du Paquier rectangular tobacco box with hinged cover and tamper in a contemporary fitted leather case, circa 1730The fluted corners moulded with gilt tobacco plants within painted trellis panels and issuing from gilt vase-shaped feet with red bases, the front, back and sides painted with a chinoiserie scene within a gilt border embellished with flowers, the bottom edges moulded with gilt foliate scrollwork bracket feet edged in blue, the gilt-edged cover mounted with a gilt-metal handle and moulded with a scallop shell surmounted by gilt scrolls, each flute painted with puce scroll-, strap- and latticework designs, alternating with a colourful bird enclosed by iron-red and gilt strap- and scrollwork, pierced around the edge eighteen times, enclosed by alternating gilt-edged panels of indianische Blumen, and quatrelobe trellis panels enclosed by puce scrollwork, the inside cover painted with a gilt scallop shell embellished with iron-red bell-flowers and enclosed by sprigs of indianische Blumen, the cover and box with the inside rims painted blue, the inside base painted with flowering peony branches within a gilt line border, the tamper painted with similar peonies on the top and green scrolling foliage issuing from a purple chrysanthemum all reserved on a blue ground, the tamper mounted with a silver rim and a finial, the box mounted with a metal hinge and lock, the base painted with a single flower-head enclosed by leaves, in a fitted leather case lined in red velvet and embossed on the cover with an elaborate foliate scrollwork motif with flowers and acorns and a border of foliate devices on scrollwork brackets alternating with acorns, all stained in black, 17.3cm across; 8.6cm high; 13.3cm deep; the case: 20.4cm across; 11.6cm high; 15.8cm deep (cover broken through the middle and restored) (3)Footnotes:Provenance:Otto and Magdalena Blohm Collection, Hamburg, sold Sotheby's London, 24 April, 1961, Lot 449;Pauls-Eisenbeiss Collection, Riehen, Switzerland (collectors' labels applied to base);The Property of a Lady, sold Christie's London, 29 June 1987, lot 207;Acquired in the above saleLiterature:Robert Schmidt, Early European Porcelain as Collected by Otto Blohm (1953), no. 79, col. pl. 24;Deborah Gage/Madleine Marsh, Tobacco Containers & Accessories Their Place in Eighteenth Century European Social History (1988), no. 3, pp. 70-73; D. Gage, A Quintessential Art Rediscovered, in The Antique Collector Magazine, June 1988, pp. 71-75, fig. 6;S. Fellner (ed.), Die lasterhafte Panazee 500 Jahre Tabakkultur in Europa (1992), no. I 93, p. 76;Johann Kräftner (ed.), Baroque Luxury Porcelain (2005), no. 57;M. Chilton/C. Lehner-Jobst (eds), Fired by Passion (2009), cat. no. 366, fig. 7.59Exhibited:London, The International Ceramics Fair and Seminar, The Dorchester Hotel, Special Loan Exhibition, The British-American Tobacco Company Collection of Tobacco Containers & Accessories, 10-13 June 1988;Vienna, Österreichisches Tabakmuseum, Die lasterhafte Panazee 500 Jahre Tabakkultur in Europa, 11 June-4 October 1992;Vienna, Liechtenstein Museum, Baroque Luxury Porcelain The Manufactories of Du Paquier in Vienna and of Carlo Ginori in Florence, 10 November 2005-29 January 2006Only one other example of this rare form is recorded: a similar model with feet in the form of seated dogs rather than tobacco plants in pots in the Wadsworth Atheneum, inv. no. 1998.17.1 (published in M. Chilton/C. Lehner-Jobst (eds.), Fired by Passion (2009), cat. no. 365). This is the only example to survive with its tamper and original leather case, and the exceptionally rich decoration of this box suggests that it could have been a special commission or gift.The chinoiserie panels on this example are related to the style of decoration developed at Meissen by J.G. Höroldt - formerly of the Du Paquier manufactory - from around 1720. In some cases, the Du Paquier painters appear to have copied Meissen chinoiserie decoration directly. Meissen porcelain with polychrome decoration is known to have been in Vienna after 1723 so it is possible that aristocratic patrons provided models to Du Paquier in order to commission similar work from the Viennese manufactory (for a discussion of the mutual influences between Meissen and Du Paquier, see J. Lessmann, Du Paquier and Meissen: Inspiration and Competition, in M. Chilton/C. Lehner-Jobst (eds.), Fired by Passion, I (2009), ch. 5, and fig. 5:53 for a Du Paquier vase with chinoiserie panels painted by the same hand. Claudia Lehner-Jobst has noted (in J. Kräftner (ed.), Baroque Luxury Porcelain (2005), no. 57) the similarity of this style of decoration to that of the Meissen painter, J.E. Stadler.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
