Formerly in black leather case stamped: MAURICE MAYER PARIS.
Maurice Mayer (1801–1864), son of a rabbi, registered his mark in November 1826, specialising in ‘le bijou de fantasie’. He was a goldsmith jeweller by appointment to Louis Philippe, the Prince de Joinville and Emperor Napoleon III. From 1844 until at least 1851 he was registered at 20 rue Vivienne, Paris, from 1855 he was recorded at 20 rue Basse du Rempart (present-day Boulevard de la Madeleine), and by 1862 he had moved to 362 rue Saint-Honoré. After his death his son, Ernest Ascher (1830–1902), continued the business as a ‘joaillier-bijoutier’. At the expositions of French industry of 1844 and 1849 the firm was awarded silver medals for silverwares and jewellery. The workshop of Alexandre Raoul Morel was on the rue Neuve des Bonnes Enfants (present-day rue Radziwill), a short walk from Maison Maurice Mayer on rue Vivienne. Morel was last recorded at this address in 1850, which means that this snuffbox with the cipher of the Prince President was one of his later works.

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