I've always wanted a Battersea enamel patch box --so old, late 1700s, and like little jewels, and so contemporary feeling in many of the messages they bear--but I've never quite settled on one until finding this one near Albany this week that seemed just right to--and maybe for!-me. (Pretty much everything I buy I'll be happy to keep for myself, so I am always my own first customer!) I shot it with 3-4x magnification so the crazing on the white enamel here is more pronounced here than to the eye, but I very much like that a box speaking to the passage of time would show a little craquelure, and also very much like the idea of "laying hold on" time manifested on/in an object that has travelled well over 200 years and across an ocean to arrive in my hands. Nice too that this one should have a (perfectly preserved) mirror inside--for checking one's primeness! And one can imagine a courtesan of the day holding this in her hand, applying her faux beauty mark or two, and checking that primeness again and again over the passing years.
1 3/8 x 1 1/8 x 7/8 t and in very good overall condition, just some crazing, mostly to the lid, 3x magnified and more pronounced in photos.
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