Crouching leopard box; trinket box

Novely bonnbonières in animal form were very popular in the 18th century. This box was probably made by Henri Neisser, a bijoutier who worked in the Geneva fabrique, famous for its enamelled watches and objects of vertu, described by a visitor in 1791 as a place of ‘free and intelligent artists who love their work …, and to whom their professions owe new methods and their trade new resources …. Here one can find a casemaker who gives a delicate form to his works and a precise finish to his hinges, there one sees bijoutiers of refined taste who invent new areas to exploit – there are enamellers who, no less skillful, diversify the enamels… ' (Marc-Théodore Bourrit, Itinéraire de Genève, Lausanne et Chamoni, J.E. Didier, Chamonix, p. 52-53). Neisser had arrived in Geneva in 1783, where he worked as a compagnon bijoutier for Isaac Forget. In 1798, he went into business with Messrs Sené & Detalla. Independent evidence shows that the partnership of Sené & Detalla became Sené & Neisser in October 1805, and a joint mark was entered in 1807. One year later, however, following Sené’s death in November 1808, Neisser registered a mark on his own, and a second one in 1815. This particularl design was made for the Chinese export market. Enamel boxes were also made at York House in Battersea by Stephen Theodore Janssen between 1753 and 1756. This ware is variably composed of soft white enamel completely covering a copper ground. A design is applied to the white enamel by hand painting or transfer printing, a process in which an impression from an engraved metal plate is brushed with enamel colours, transferred to paper and then to the surface to be decorated. Transfer printing was used on a large scale for the first time at Battersea. It is sometimes suggested that the closing of the famous Battersea enamel factory in 1756 led to the establishment of the Staffordshire industry in the Bilston area; but this is misleading as there is clear evidence of the trade's existence in Birmingham well before this date; the city that Edmund Burke famously described as the 'great toyshop of Europe'. The largest Birmingham manufacturer, John Taylor, employed about 500 people, though not all worked in the enamel department. At the same time, the small towns of Wednesbury and Bilston were also making enamel boxes and other enamelled wares. Men and materials, such as the engraved plates for transfers, probably migrated to Bilston after 1756 and improved the standard of work. The Birmingham makers also had access to Simon Fancois Ravenet and James Gwin's designs, which explains why firm attributions are so difficult. Also, partly worked boxes especially the decorative lids were made in London and then sent to the Midlands for finishing. This is almost certainly a product of Staffordshire rather than London. Bonnbonière (boxes) of animal-shape were very popular and were used as table favours at Country House party shoots, as an elegant reminder of the game available. They were sold by 'Toymen' in fashionable St James and The Haymarket.