Frederik Fabricius (1740–1823) received the burghership of Copenhagen as a jeweller on 22 April 1771. From 1767 he acted as deputy to his father Christopher Fabricius in his role as Assaymaster of the City, a position he himself took over in 1787 and held until his death. Frederik Fabricius was the third generation of his family to hold the position of jeweller to the Danish court. In the period 1720 to 1797 the family supplied 230 snuffboxes: fifty gold, seventy gold and enamel, fifty gold-mounted with various hardstones – amethyst, agate and jasper – and the remainder gold-mounted with other materials including amber, mother-of-pearl, antler, tortoiseshell and ivory.

The distinctive slightly sharp edges of the applied coloured-gold detailing may be seen on another box by Fabricius that is decorated with views of Copenhagen. Unlike Sweden, where gold snuffboxes were created in substantial numbers in the eighteenth century, in Denmark few were made and so surviving examples are rare. Another example by Fabricius, a gold and basse taille enamel snuffbox, engraved on the rim ‘F. Fabr: Kbh.’, is in the collection of the Designmuseum Denmark, Copenhagen.

The enamel plaque is painted with rather an idiosyncratic image – possibly intended to be emblematic of victory – of a bearded warrior trampling on a shield and holding two laurel wreaths of peace, while a fire burns in the background. The execution is similarly offbeat, possibly the work of a local artist influenced by the work of Joseph Brecheisen (?1720–?1766), an itinerant artist who worked for the court in Copenhagen between 1757 and 1764

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