Ath 1747, Silver And Silver-gilt Snuff Box, Louis XV

Very pretty solid silver snuffbox or snuff box from the Louis XV period. It is richly decorated and engraved with rocaille motifs and a character. This sumptuous Louis XV period snuff box in solid silver with an impeccable vermeil interior with the hallmarks of the town of Ath in Hainaut and with a date letter hallmark K surmounted by a star for 1747. Its master goldsmith also provided his hallmark but it is unfortunately quite faded and illegible. Rather large in size, its format suggests that it is a snuff box for men. In several documents of the time we see that their authors made the difference between boxes intended for men and those intended for ladies. The goldsmiths of the town of Ath had great difficulty in meeting their basic needs with orders from local customers. This is why they specialized in the manufacture of what their contemporaries called "menuties", that is to say small silver objects that could be easily exported to other cities in the Austrian Netherlands to be sold at the annual markets or at merchants. This is why the hallmark of the city of Ath is clearly overrepresented on many snuff boxes, fly boxes, shoe buckles and other costume buttons that can be found on the production of Belgian silversmiths of the eighteenth century. It is in very good condition, the vermeil inside is slightly erased in places. It weighs 100 grams