This snuffbox is one that needs to be held in the hand and moved around in order to catch the play of light. When still, the ground appears a dull brown, which bears no relation to the strong pink of the background enamel of the grisaille plaques, but when moved the colours of the shell change and become iridescent with rosy glints. As Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737–1814) wrote in 1784 in his Etudes de la nature, describing magellan, a particularly colourful burgau: ‘in its natural state the exterior is black, but when polished it displays all the colours of the dawn’.
The previous year Drais had supplied two snuffboxes for the corbeille of the Dauphine Marie Antoinette (1755–1793), including one of magellan for Louis Phélypeaux, Comte de Saint Florentin (1705–1777), and both with gold panels chased by Gérard Debèche fils, who seemed to have often worked for Drais. 

minimize...