Simple, silver oval dish and domed cover with beaded edge, with two hinged handles of modified heart shape, the cover with wooden ball knop, engraved on the interior lip of the body and on one side of the cover, a demi-lion rampant holding a shield with pile and hatchings (unidentified).

Covered Dish

Hester Bateman, London, England

1785-1786

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Oval medallion with profile portrait of Jean-Francois Marmontel (1723-1799), French writer and dramatist, born in the Limousin region (noe Haute Vienne). Educated at the Jesuit college at Mauriac. Marmontel became a teacher of philosophy at the Bernardine seminary at Toulouse. He attracted the notice of Voltaire, who advised him to go to Paris where he arrived in 1745. A tragedy produced in 1747 at once gave him celebrity. An introduction to Madame de Pompadour brought him the place of secretary to her brother, the Marquis de Marigny. Marmontel frequented the salon of Madame Geoffrin, and after the death of his friend, Boissy, he was given the Mercure de France. After a great deal of opposition Marmontel was elected to the Academy in 1763, and in 1783 was appointed Secretary and historiographer of France. He retired to Normandy at the outbreak of the revolution, dying there in 1799. This model comes from an unsigned engraving dated 1765
Rectangular tea caddy of heavily carved ivory with silver mounts, the caddy decorated in relief on all sides with images of Chinese figures, exotic scenes, and animals with delicate floral sprays and leaves within a Greek key pattern border, with engraved silver escutcheon and hinges, four silver claw feet, and silver pineapple finial, the interior lined with wood covered with red velvet; the pair of tea canisters of heavily and elaborately chased silver in the Chinoiserie style, rectangular with slightly contoured sides and decorated with scrolls, shell, and leafy motifs, on the sides within a reserve 1) the figure of a seated Chinese figure in robe and hat, sitting on a cushion with palm trees and a second seated figure on the left; and 2) a standing Chinese figure in robe and hat with an architectural structure in the background and exotic trees, with a second standing figure on the right holding a flag or pennant; at both ends an engraved coat-of-arms, the covers with truncated edges and an elaborate finial comprised of flowers, ribbons, and leaves.
Bust in profile left in Prussian general's uniform with the sash and Order of the Black Eagle, the Iron Cross, and the War Memorial Medal 1813-15.
Oval black basalt cameo with profile portrait of a man