The deeply carved agate cameo is almost certainly late eighteenth-century Italian, the composition possibly derived from a Roman marble relief similar to the first-century AD representation of a theatrical scene in the Farnese Collection. The subject shows a poet, standing on the left, and four muses: the first, seated and holding a lyre with a mask at her feet, is either Terpsichore, muse of dance, or Erato, muse of love poetry; second, Thalia, muse of comedy, stands in the centre holding a mask on a salver; third is Calliope, muse of epic poetry, with a scroll in her hand and a mask on her head; last is Melpomene, muse of tragedy, holding a mask and a sword.
The blue taille d’épargne enamel border on the base of the snuffbox is decorated with bees and stars, two emblems adopted by Emperor Napoleon I that were used by the artists and designers charged with creating a suitable setting for the new imperial court. For example, in 1808 the emperor’s bedroom at the Château de Compiègne was hung with a crimson damask by the Lyon silk weaver Camille Pernon (1753–1808) that was centred with a star surrounded by bees. Vachette repeated similar bee and star motifs on the borders of a presentation snuffbox set with a miniature of the emperor, today in the collection of the Fondation Napoléon, Paris.
Napoleon I had a keen interest in cameos, collecting earlier works and commissioning new pieces from contemporary carvers such as Niccolò Morelli, one of whose cameo portraits of the emperor is mounted on the lid of the box made by the Galleria dei Lavori, Florence. When in exile on St Helena, Napoleon, in gratitude for her support, sent Lady Holland (1771–1845) in London a snuffbox, made by Vachette in the years 1798–1809, mounted with a cameo of Bacchus which had been given to him by Pope Pius VI in 1797. The combination of the cameo and the imperial attributes on the present snuffbox, as well as the fact that it is made of 20.25 carat gold rather than the more usual 18 carat, suggest that it may have been either an imperial gift or part of Napoleon I’s private collection. The Baron de Méneval, in a letter published in the memoirs of Jean Baptiste Isabey, noted that the emperor always had in his room ten snuffboxes of oblong form with small antique medallions on the lid.

minimize...