The initials MJ stand for Maximilian I Joseph, King of Bavaria (1756–1825)
The design of this box is similar to one included in an album in the Hanau archive that records part of the production of snuffboxes, military and house orders and decorations in the city in the years 1814 and 1815. The distinctive plaid-patterned engraving of the sides and base had been favoured by Parisian goldsmiths during the Empire, and was used on several snuffboxes made for the imperial family, including one applied with the initial of Emperor Napoleon I by Nicolas Huguet. The sablé surface of the lid panel had also been fashionable at the same date; witness two other imperial presentation snuffboxes, by Pierre André Montauban and Marie Victoire Boizot (veuve Blerzy) both applied with diamond-set initials, like the present box. Emperor Napoleons youngest brother Jerome, when King of Westphalia, commissioned presentation snuffboxes from Hanau goldsmiths, the designs for which recall similar production in Paris, suggesting that he nurtured French imperial court style in his own kingdom. Such an aesthetic would certainly have appealed to the francophile tastes of Maximilian I Joseph.

minimize...