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c. 1790 Benjamin Franklin In His Beaver Fur Hat Portrait Snuff Box

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:2,250.00 USD Estimated At:2,800.00 - 3,200.00 USD
c. 1790 Benjamin Franklin In His Beaver Fur Hat Portrait Snuff Box
American Revolution
Benjamin Franklin In His Beaver Fur Hat Portrait Snuff Box
c. 1790 Federal Period, Historic Snuff Box with Portrait Image of Benjamin Franklin, After the Famous Drawing by Cochin in 1777, France, Fine.
A historic nicely crafted Paper Mache Snuff Box with Benjamin Franklin Portrait Transfer and having a black lacquer finish, measuring 3.5” in diameter and 7/8” high comprised of the standard two-piece lid and base construction. The top lid displays a classic Portrait Image of Franklin, who is shown wearing his popular and quite famous Beaver Fur Hat and his “Franklin” Spectacles. This image designed After his 1777 Portrait Drawing by Cochin. Below the image bears a legend, “Il fit des Luis Sage Quel Bonheur Pour l’Amerique.” Minor roughness and chipping on the top edge rim with expected actual overall wear from use. The Franklin portrait image remains strong and attractive, with some of the original gloss retained and some conservation accomplished. A very rare and important Revolutionary War period example displaying the high regard, high esteem and tribute in honoring of our official American Ambassador to France, Benjamin Franklin.
1777 Portrait print of Benjamin Franklin (Cochin/St Aubin), After a drawing by Cochin, the original is not known to be extant. The original etched and engraved copperplate is owned by Yale University, in the William Smith Mason Collection.

The engraving depicts a head-and shoulder-length portrait of Franklin, facing toward the right edge of the sheet. He wears a fur cap, spectacles, and cloth suit with, apparently, cloth-covered buttons, and a severe neck cloth.

The artist has given his subject vitality by showing him shifting his gaze slightly to glance at the viewer, looking beyond the rim of his spectacles.

This print was one of the first available French images of Franklin. The Journal de Paris announced its publication and the court paper Le Mercure de France discussed it. Franklin sent one of the prints to his family in the summer of 1777. It shows him with a fur cap that he wore in the winter of 1776-77.

This headgear attracted the notice of the French public, who associated it with a hat worn by the French philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). In part because of favorable early French reactions to his simple manner of dressing, Franklin did not adopt the more formal costume of an ambassador, except for court appearances. Some related his garb to that of French men of letters and others to American Quaker clothing. Several states of the engraving survive.