Jean François Fregevize (1737–1804) is unusual in that he qualified as master in both Geneva and later in his native Berlin. According to Scheffler, Jean François, son of dyer Pierre Fregevize and his wife Marie Blachère, worked as a journeyman between 1759 and 1761 for Carl Ferdinand Weigelt, a goldsmith in Breslau, and on 22 May 1761 submitted a drawing of a snuffbox in order to qualify as a Stückmeister, piecework master, but there is no further record there. He next appears in the official records as a bijoutier from Berlin requesting registration as habitant in Geneva on 22 August 1769, presumably regularising his situation a few weeks before he is recorded as marrying Marie, daughter of a shoemaker and natif, Frédéric Wolff, at the German Church on 8 September. He qualified as master in Geneva in 1776, presenting as his masterpiece une tabatière très bien faite, and is said to have gone into partnership with the brothers Gédéon and Pierre Chapuis, successors to the jewellery business of André Patry. He is last recorded in Geneva in 1782, burying an infant son of the same name, the tenth of his children to have been born in Geneva.

Fregevize reappears in Berlin three years later as a supposedly fifty-year-old Galanteriarbeiter, presenting as his masterpiece there an oval gold snuffbox, which was accepted. Interestingly his sponsor was Herr Théremin, presumably François Claude. Fregevize remained in Berlin, taking on fourteen apprentices – quite an exceptional number – before his death in 1804. His eldest son, the landscape painter Frédéric Fregevize (1770–1849), although originally based in Berlin returned to live and die in Geneva. The family name can be found spelled in many ways, from Frisebise to Fraichevize, with variations in between.

This snuffbox dates to the period after Fregevize had returned to Berlin, more specifically to the closing years of the century. The painted enamel decoration is of considerable interest as the approach to composition and the way in which details such as foliage are rendered may both be noted in landscapes painted on boxes made by the Berlin goldsmith Gustav Wancke and by the ‘FJ’ workshop. If these parallels are accepted, the similarities provide the evidence to suggest a common origin from the same school of painting. As both Fregevize and Wancke are linked specifically to Berlin this helps endorse theargument that the ‘FJ’ boxes were also produced in that city. What is evident is that the landscapes of this group differ from those that may be associated with Hanau or Geneva production.

Continuing the theme of crossovers, it is interesting to note that the gold of the border is slightly matt and detailed with bright-cut engraving. A similar treatment may be noted on ‘FJ’ boxes of the period.

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