Kulper

Kulper, Brueg, circa 1740. Fine and unusual oval vermeil snuffbox fitted with a watch. Three-body, oval, the covers opening from a central hinge, the dial on one side and the tobacco compartmenton the other, the lids engraved with a charmingly naïve scene of two gentlemen sitting at a table, one smoking apipe, the other pointing at a globe. Silver, champlevé, Roman chapters, outer Arabic five-minutes in arched cartouches, set in an engraved gilt plate, auxiliary regulating dial in the top left corner, an identical dummy to theright for symmetry. Blued-steel "poker and beetle" hands. 35 x 49 mm., semicircular, brass full plate, balusterpillars, fusee and chain for the going train, verge escapement, plain three-arm balance, flat balance spring, plainbrass one-footed cock. Dim. 88 x 56 x 14 mm. Published in the Sandberg book, pages 376-377. Notes Another Kulper box is in the Zale Collection and is illustrated in their catalogue as o. 35. It is virtually identical except for the lid engraving, which is nonetheless similarly executed. Johan Kulper 1677-1746 also Culper Listed as having been active in Bruges, he is a renowned maker of snuff bottles and repeating and striking watches.