A gold snuff box

A gold snuff box

A gold snuff box, of cartouche section, the slightly raised matted gold cover boldly chased and embossed with a scene depicting Hagar at the Well, within polished reeded C-scrolls, foliage and shells, raised incorporated thumbpiece, the polished gold sides engraved on the front Mellis, an eagle above, the base chased with geometric quatrefoil pattern.

Hagar

The scene depicted on the cover is based on the Old Testament, Gen. 21. After being cast out by Abraham and Sarah, Hagar and her son Ishmael were dying of thirst in the desert of Beersheba. An angel directed her, and God opened her eyes to see a well of water, saving them. This moment highlights God’s provision and care for the outcast, fulfilling the promise to make Ishmael a great nation.

The goldsmith

Jean Saint was born in Saint Lo, Normandy, circa 1698. In 1723 he married Maria Duzy, born in Bremen circa 1699 and registered his mark the following year with the Dutch goldsmiths’ guild. From 1727 an address at Handboogstraat is mentioned, in a neighbourhood where many other goldsmiths of Huguenot origine worked and lived. They had two sons, Guillaume and Jean Daniël, who both would become jewellers in the 1750s. Saint owes part of his fame to the workmen he used to make the lids of his boxes, such as Sébastien du Flos of Paris (1711-after 1763) and Philippe Métayer of Rouen (1693-1763), with whom he manufactured a snuff-box in 1727, chased with King Minos judged by Apollo, formerly on loan to the Goud, Zilver en Klokkenmuseum, 1982.