The gold snuffbox features an oval-shaped body decorated with borders of a floral ornament with leaves of green and flowers of red enamel over a golden matted ground, and a hinged lid. In the center of the lid, on a golden guilloché field, within a frame made of a chain of beads of white opaque enamel, under a convex glass, there is a miniature depicting the King of France and Navarre, Louis XVI, with powdered hair and a braid tied with a ribbon, in a dark coat with the star and sash of the Order of the Holy Spirit and the sash of the Order of Saint Louis. The miniature is framed by a chain of white enamel beads. Under the lid, there is a tobacco compartment with marks on the mirror-polished surface of the base and the rim, and a label. On the bottom panel of the base, a golden guilloché field is framed by a border with a floral ornament with leaves of green and flowers of red enamel over a golden matted ground, between bands of white enamel and a chain of white enamel beads. The side surface is decorated with oval medallions depicting bouquets of flowers in polychrome enamel, framed by a chain of white enamel beads, on golden plates with guilloché within frames of white enamel, separated by an ornament of polychrome enamel. The snuffbox is stored in a case made of textured bordeaux-colored leather with an exhibition label.This snuffbox was received in November 1785 from Louis XVI by Heinrich XI, Prince Reuss zu Greiz (1722–1800), Privy Councilor of the Austrian Netherlands, in recognition of his assistance in the extradition of “demoiselle d’Oliva and sieur Beausire” from Brussels to the Bastille prison.

minimize...