Snuffbox with an openwork frame, decorated with solid mother-of-pearl plates or composite panels with mother-of-pearl mosaic, were very popular in Paris in the mid-1740s. In the manufacture of composite panels, fragments of mother-of-pearl of various colors and degrees of iridescence were carefully selected so that when the snuffbox was turned, the play of light would enliven the ornament. In this case, this effect enhances the sense of movement in the wavy woven pattern.

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