An exceptional silver gilt snuff box marked for London 1813 by Daniel Hockley surmounted with a signed micromosaic made in Rome by Gioacchino Barberi (1772-1857) probably after a painting by Johann Wenzel Peter (1745- 1829).
Dimensions: 7 cm long by 5.47 cm deep by 2.4 cm high.
Weight: 144 grams.
Signed micromosaics are extremely rare
See page 187 of Micromosaics, Private Collections by Jeanette Hanisee Gabriel where another similar signed version is pictured and discussed.
Gioacchino Leone Ulisse Barberi (1772-1857) was extremely talented at portraying charming and naturalistic animals and on page 307 of Micromosaics, Private Collections by Jeanette Hanisee Gabriel there is a select list of his works. On page 187 it is noted “Another signed version by Barberi of this composition portrays the dog and pigeons in the same pose in a completely different landscape; it is set atop a gold box (circa 1840) by the famed Geneva goldsmiths Moulinie, Bautte and Moynier and sold for an astonishing price of almost sixty-three thousand dollars (Christies, London, 6 December 2005, lot 26).
Johann Wenzel Peter was born on the 9th of September 1745, in Karlsbad (Czech Republic) and died on the 28th of December 1829, in Rome. Peter is known for his animal paintings which appear in the Vatican Museums and frescos which are on the walls of the Galleria Borghese. In Micromosaics, Private Collections by Jeanette Hanisee, page 15 it states “He is documented as having sold multiple versions of his pictures to the mosaicists Raffaelli, Peglieschi, and Gioacchino Barberi. Another of his specialties was painting the dogs of nobleman visiting Rome; his depiction of the 6th Duke of Devonshire’s spaniel, Tawney, is still at Chatsworth. Recumbent spaniels of various colours based on this prototype are among the most desirable micromosaic subjects”.
Daniel Hockly was born in London in 1787 and was recorded working from 1809-1819. In December 1819 he sailed for the Cape on board the Chapman, accompanied by his wife Elizabeth and four children. They landed at Algoa Bay in April 1820 and at first settled at the mouth of the Fish River, later moving to Uitenhage, Grahamstown, Cradock and Graff-Reinet, where he died in 1835.