Given its size and shape the plaque was evidently intended to be used for the lid of a snuffbox, probably commissioned as a wedding gift. It is chased with Hymen joining the hands of the bride and groom in front of an altar to Venus, flanked by ribbon-hung medallions chased symbolically with an angler and a beehive. It has been suggested that these symbols could represent the arms of the bride and groom. A beehive, for example, was adopted as a charge by the Lejeup family, wealthy Huguenot merchants who settled in England. They could also symbolise the activities of the bride and groom’s respective families, perhaps fruitful industry at sea and on land. On a more allegorical level, the beehive was seen as as a symbol of purity and chastity, since a bee was rather charmingly thought to reproduce spontaneously, while a fisherman was seen as a seeker after truth.

The brothers Louis and Philippe Metayer were celebrated as goldsmiths in Amsterdam in the mid-eighteenth century, much as the Van Vianen brothers had been a century earlier. Descended from a large family of Protestant goldsmiths in Rouen, the brothers fled France to avoid religious persecution under Louis XIV. Philippe (1697 1763), described as a chaser, became a citizen of Amsterdam in 1726 and was joined by his brother Louis who became a master of the Amsterdam Goldsmiths’ Guild in 1730 Philippe’s signature as chaser appears on a gold snuffbox, maker’s mark of Jean Saint, 1727, but from 1730 the brothers worked both independently and in partnership, as evidenced by a gold wedding cup now in the Rijksmuseum, superbly chased with putti and allegorical wedding scenes within rocaille scrollwork, struck with Louis’s maker’s mark and signed: P. Metayer in. & fec. 1754. Philippe also opened a business selling tobacco, as seen on a trade card where he describes himself as marchand de tabac dans le Kalverstraat, an area popular with refugees from France.

Furthermore, from an extant invoice Philippe is known to have commissioned sixteen designs for snuffbox lids and watch cases from the painter Louis Fabrice Dubourg (1693–1775), a compatriot from Rouen, between 1731 and 1735. A number of these, together with further drawings from the Metayers, were acquired by the Rijksmuseum in 1981. A predominant theme among the designs was marriage, just as in the present plaque. This was not surprising as snuff or tobacco boxes were often commissioned as important wedding gifts for the groom and frequently portrayed classical weddings or famous biblical or mythological marriages. The design for the present plaque does not appear to be listed among those supplied by Dubourg in 1732 but may have been executed earlier, or, of course, Philippe could have designed it himself or found another source.

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