Frères Jordan

A German 19th Century Gold and Enamel Box

Frères Jordan

A German 19th Century Gold and Enamel Box

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Gold & Enamel
Hanau, c. 1810
Maker’s mark of Freres Jordan

Length: 8.4 cm, 3 1/3 in.
Width: 5.1 cm, 2 in.
Height: 1.6 cm, 2 ¾ in.

DESCRIPTION SILVERSMITH BIOGRAPHY

Of rectangular shape with rounded corners. Cover set with a rectangular enamel plaque depicting two women in antique dress, one is seated and the other gestures towards a man deep in thought, set within a landscape with a stone structure in the background. The plaque is bordered by bands of deep blue enamel separated by a band of gold foliate scrolls and geometric patterning. Similarly decorated to the sides and base.

Engraving to the inside of the lid “1228”.

It has been suggested that boxes bearing the marks FJ - with laurel above, with or without a sunray mark and a crossed-S mark is possibly for Frères Jordan (circa 1790-1820), Berlin or Hanau, previously attributed to François Joanin, Geneva, are the work of Huguenot goldsmiths who flourished in the Rhineland in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, most notably in Hanau and Berlin.
Characterized with the same shallow construction, occasionally with canted corners and style of decoration their production seems to date from circa 1790 to circa 1820.
A number of these boxes bearing this hallmark are illustrated in the essay Swiss Snuff-Boxes 1785-1835 written by J. Clarke, in H. Williams, ed. Enamels of the World 1700-2000 The Khalili Collections, London, 2009, pp. 293-305.
Taking into account the unlikelihood of 'FJ' boxes being made in either Geneva or Hanau and the significant information recorded by Erman and Reclam, as well as evidence that may be gleaned from the boxes themselves, it is reasonable to suggest that the mark 'FJ' is that of Frères Jordan, Prussian crown jewellers, in Berlin.