Lot 79: A GERMAN COPPER AND BRASS TOBACCO BOX, JOHANN HEINRICH GIESE (1716-61), ISERLOHN, CIRCA 1760

A GERMAN COPPER AND BRASS TOBACCO BOX, JOHANN HEINRICH GIESE (1716-61), ISERLOHN, CIRCA 1760
oblong, the brass lid stamped with a tea-taking scene, the base with the Continents and a Dutch quatrain above the stamp 'GIESE F'
16.5cm long
The translated quatrain reads 'I navigate as a hero to far-lying coasts / Were it not for the gold, much sooner would I rest / And remain on land, and keep my comfort / And drink a glass of wine, and smoke a pipe of tobacco'.
The engraver Johann Heinrich Giese was granted sole manufacturing rights of such stamped brass panels by Frederick the Great in 1755 (later granted to a number of other manufacturers). Iserlohn tobacco boxes were manufactured both for the local market (often decorated with celebrations of military victories) as well as for the large Dutch market.
See the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, for two Giese boxes with the same stamped scenes, Acquisition Numbers 89.2.15/16.