A French souvenir of Venice

[Andreadb]

Hello All,

This time I am looking for the name of the silversmith who has created this elegant souvenir. It is an enameled silver tobacco box.It has a clear French silver hallmark depicting the Minerva head with number 1 on the top right corner (950 silver)
However I could not identify the silversmith hallmark; it looks like the typical romboidal shape with three letters C (?). Any taker? who can help? Thank you in advance
Regards, Andrea

[JayT]

Hello
Please see the post below for the answer to who made your box

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=58190&p=190286&hilit=Jonquoy#p190286

Regards

[Andreadb]

Thank you Jay T!
And thank you to all who take their time to share their knowledge on this forum!

I was also confused by what I thought was a triple "C". However the hallmark by Claude Louis Jonquoy does not seem to be in the list of the French makers marks menu on the 925-1000 website, neither under C, nor J. And there seems to be very little information about him on the net. Probably only a minor silversmith, not so well known?

Regards
Andrea

[JayT]

Hello
You’re so right: this forum offers a wealth of information. To be fair, it would be difficult to have a complete listing of French makers here. There are specialized dictionaries of French marks for that. For example, Arminjon lists 3,368 Paris makers registered between 1798-1838, and 3,992 Paris makers registered between 1838-1875.
I’d categorize a maker as “minor” if they were active for only a few years. Jonquoy - the maker of your snuff box - was active for many years (1818-1849), therefore presumably had a successful business, and as seen by the two examples on this forum, made quality items. During most of the nineteenth century the silver business was still quite fragmented, with thousands of small manufacturers, and had not yet consolidated into the major producers that have survived to this day.
Hope this helps.
Regards.

[Andreadb]

Thank you Jay T
Yes, your comments helped a lot.
Ciao
Andrea

[JayT]

My pleasure!