215 - RARE SNUFF BOX PRESENTED BY CHARLES LONG TO ANTONIO CANOVA

RARE SNUFF BOX PRESENTED BY CHARLES LONG TO ANTONIO CANOVA Rectangular, baluster-shaped snuffbox in yellow gold (750 °/°°), chiseled and engraved on all sides. The lid is adorned with a tavern scene featuring a lute player, in the style of Teniers, set within a rocaille frame. The inside of the lid is engraved with a dedication: “Charles Long, / Al suo Amico / Antonio Canova.” The sides and bottom are adorned with an engraved design of rocaille motifs and scrollwork. England, London, date letter T for 1818. No silversmith’s mark. Height: 2.8 cm - Width: 7.3 cm - Depth: 5.6 cm - Weight: 163.8 g. (Light, even wear) Provenance: – Collection of Henry D. Hill (1899–1994) and his brother Sidney, of the Berry-Hill Gallery, New York. – Reportedly from the collection of the Duchess of Windsor (1896–1986) – French private collection, reportedly formerly part of the previous collection. Bibliography: – The Magazine Antiques, Volume 53, No. 2, 1948. Pages 104 and 106 (our snuffbox is reproduced). – Henry and Sidney BERRY-HILL, *The Fascinating History of the Century of the Snuffbox*, Abelard Press, New York, 1953. Our snuffbox is illustrated on the title page. Description: Charles Long (1760–1838), the future 1st Baron Farnborough, was one of the great art lovers and patrons of the arts in England at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. A statesman, collector, and renowned “connoisseur,” he maintained a long-standing and ongoing relationship with Antonio Canova (1757–1822), the most famous Neoclassical sculptor of his time. Canova, who was based in Rome and admired throughout Europe, found in Charles Long a privileged point of contact in the British world—a friend, admirer, and liaison to the English elite. Charles Long had known Antonio Canova for nearly thirty years and continued, in the early 19th century, to serve as an intermediary in his dealings with the Prince Regent. The dedication engraved on the inside of the lid of our snuffbox—“Charles Long, / Al suo Amico / Antonio Canova” thus takes on its full significance: it places this snuffbox in the category of an intimate gift, offered as a token of esteem and enduring friendship between a great English connoisseur and the Italian artist whom he counted among his closest friends. Such an object, linking one of the greatest sculptors of his time to one of his closest British supporters, is extremely rare, both because of its personal nature and the quality of the bonds it embodies.