A tiny scent flask made from a small nut, carved all around its circumference with the scene of a stag hunt, the running stag being chased by hounds and the huntsman on his horse. Suspended from gold coloured metal chains with a screw on cap and stopper within the neck, a design of radiating leaves carved at the top and at the base.
French, circa 1790.
1 inch high.
Coconuts, and the likes of this tiny nut, were frequently bought home by both returning sailors and soldiers as testimony to their accounts of visiting tropical Islands. Through the course of the 18th century the port of Dieppe gained an international reputation as a centre of fine carving, principally of ivory but the skill often employed on more humble materials such as boxwood or bone. With Dieppe being exploited as a source of men for the French navy there followed a coalescence of sailor and carver, the sailors' skills in turn readily learned by the soldiers that shared their vessel and destination.
Item Code: 690
£ 690
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