A VICTORIAN SILVER SNUFF BOX, HILLIARD & THOMASON, BIRMINGHAM, 1854

shaped oblong, the lid engraved with a view of East Cliff Lodge, Ramsgate after a watercolour by Turner within an applied cast and chased floral border, the waisted sides and base engraved with scroll foliage on a linear ground, the gilt interior engraved with the Montefiore crest to the lid

8.8cm long, 203gr (6oz 10dwt)

Provenance: Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st Baronet, FRS (1784-1885), the financier and philanthropist, who married in 1812 Rachel Cohen (1784-1862), daughter of Levi Barent Cohen and sister to Hannah, wife of Nathan Meyer Rothschild. East Cliff Lodge appears to have been built in the mid 1790s, boasting extensive gardens, romantic tunnels cut into the chalk and stupendous views out to sea. The Montefiores rented the property in 1822, purchasing it in 1830, remaining there, when not at their house in Park Lane, until their respective deaths. The mausoleum, in which Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore were laid to rest, and the adjacent private synagogue they had built in the grounds still exist, but the house itself was demolished in 1954. J.M.W. Turner (1875-1851) apparently painted views of both the seaward and landward facing elevations of East Cliff Lodge in about 1797, see the Tate's listings of the artist's work, Ref. TW1598/TW1899. See lot 658 for a pair of Sheffield plate dish warmers, engraved with a coat of arms for the marriage of Lady Montefiore's niece, Jeanette Cohen, to David Salomons.