enamel crest on a snuff box

[blonde_minx]

Hi , this lovely silver snuff box has a stone set top and a beautiful enamel crest inside the lid , could anyone help identify who this crest may belong to
Thanks in advance any help would be much appriciated
Thanks
Mandy

[agphile]

Not my area of expertise so I risk misleading you but I think this may represent the arms of a Prince of Wales. If so, the date letter of the hallmarks may help identify which one but the image is too small and blurred for my eyesight though I would guess the future Edward VII.

The item looks to me more like part of a dressing table set than a snuff box. It is tempting to think it may have been a souvenir adorning the dressing table of one of his many lady friends, but I shouldn't let imagination run away with me!

[blonde_minx]

Hi Thanks for your help and info, i will do some more research on the coat of arms going down the path you suggested and see if i can turn anything up, i will let you know if i find anything
Best wishes
Mandy

[blonde_minx]

Hi, let me start with a little info i have found out since researching this royal coat of arms, you are spot on with this belonging to the prince of wales but i didnt know which one, so far what i can gather is it seems that this coat of arms belonged to prince of wales the prince regent, i do wonder if this enamel coat of arms had been kept within the Royal family and then mounted on the object above, the reason im thinking this way is because the date the item was assayed is 1912 which was would have been the year for Edward VIII 18th birthday, the silversmith used was an important silversmith also, maybe this was commissioned by his father George V as a special gift for his 18th birthday, i may be out completely but so far this seems the most logical




Queen Anne died in 1714 with no direct heir and under the terms of the Act of Settlement of 1714 the crown passed to George Louis, the Electoral Prince of Hanover in Germany, who became King George I. His royal arms for Great Britain displayed the arms of Hanover in the fourth quarter. (George and his four male successors retained their German princely titles.) In this form the arms lasted until 1801. In that year, King George III formerly renounced Edward III's claim to the French crown, and the French arms were deleted. The new arms displayed England in the first and fourth quarters, Scotland in the second quarter and Ireland in the third quarter, with an escutcheon of the arms of Hanover under an electoral cap to the centre. The cap was changed to a royal crown in 1816, when Hanover become a kingdom.


King William IV (reigned 1830-37) was the last British monarch who was also King of Hanover. Upon his death the throne passed to his niece, Princess Victoria of Kent. Since according to the Salic Law prevailing in Germany a woman could not inherit a crown in her own right, the Kingdom of Hanover passed to George III's fifth son, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland. The Hanoverian escutcheon was removed from the British royal arms, leaving them in the form still used nowadays.

Best wishes
Mandy

[agphile]

Glad you have been able to identify the prince. I'd be doubtful about the theory that the enamel remained in the Royal Family to become a gift to the future Edward viii. I don't think the Prince Regent would have been seen as a desirable role model. (And with hindsight, his morganatic marriage to the older Mrs Fitzherbert would have had ironic implications given Edward's later abdication in order to marry an older and previously married woman!)

I think it more likely that the enamel was mounted by somebody else as an interesting relic.

[blonde_minx]

Hi thanks for your response, you more than likely are correct but we will never know to whom this was given or mounted by, that will always remain a mystery but never the less its stunning and a part of our history
Best wishes