A fine and very rare embellished gilt-bronze and famille rose blue-ground enamel 'European lady' oval snuff box Qianlong, circa 1760-1780. Photo courtesy Bonhams

The oval container with vertical oval side panels evenly spaced between raised floral sprays and surmounted by a twisted spiral band, the cover edge set with aventurine and blue glass beads, the shallowly-domed cover with a central enamel plaque depicting an elegant European female figure looking to her right and picking flowers, enclosed within bands of red, green, blue and purple beads, the box opening to reveal a mirror inside the cover. 9.8cm wide; 7cm deep; 5.4cm high. Estimate HK$ 600,000 - 800,000 (€57,000 - 77,000)

Although it was very much a Canton style of craftsmanship, combining enamel with hardstone embellishments was obviously popular at the Beijing Court. A gold vessel enamelled all over with translucent green enamel and further decorated with ruby chips in the taste of Indian Mughal flower heads, is still in Beijing, illustrated in Treasures of Imperial Court: The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, nos.207,208; and see also the silver-bodied similar stem bowl and stand, ibid. no.206.

It is possible in the case of this fine (but unusually wide and thin) box that the immediate source of design inspiration may have been an English tooth-pick case of the type illustrated by A.Kenneth Snowman, Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Europe, no.483 (colour plate): this fine London-made slender oval box was adorned with a handsome enamelled portrait of the Indian Governor Warren Hastings, and presented to him by a group of Indian Rajahs in about 1785. 

See a similar example with comparable designs and also with a blue panel as the cover in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated by Hou, Yi-Li,Lifting the Spirit and Body: The Art and Culture of Snuff Bottles, Taipei, 2012, pp.270-271, no.IV-060. 

Bonhams. THE SPEELMAN COLLECTION OF CHINESE 'IMPERIAL TRIBUTE' SNUFF BOXES. Hong Kong. 24 Nov 2013 13:00 CST