Hettlinger (att): Interesting “buffon” Snuffbox In Gold, Wood And Tortoiseshell. 18th Century Sèvres

Exceptional “Buffon” box dating from the end of the 18th century, attributed to Jean-Jacques Hettlinger.

The box is round, made of wood burl. The frame is highlighted with brown tortoiseshell fillets. The interior is also plated with tortoiseshell.

The lid is decorated with a superb and magnificent medallion representing a bird made with natural feathers, flowers also made from feathers as well as natural plants, all of which are enclosed in solidified wax.

This extraordinary medallion is highlighted by a circular gold frame.

This wax medallion is similar to the Louis XVI medallion stamped Guillaume Benneman and delivered by the haberdashery merchant Daguerre for the piece of the Vaisselle d'Or of Versailles, before 1789. (See photo n°8)

This medal is decorated with ten wax panels, natural feathers and plants under ice attributed to Jean-Jacques Hettlinger, co-director of the Sèvres factory between 1784 and 1803.
Originally from Winterthur in Switzerland, he began his career as a doctor in the mines of Baigorry in Navarre in 1756 and became Inspector General of the Mines of Navarre; at the same time he studied natural sciences, published articles on entomology and became a member of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences and the Zurich Physical Society. From the end of the 1770s, Hettlinger made bird feather marquetry on the tops of boxes. He presented King Louis XVI, after 1784, with “two snuff boxes decorated with birds made with natural feathers”.

This snuffbox is very probably one of these boxes made by Hettlinger in the 1770s. The panels of the medallions are very similar to our medallion, both in the overall composition, the use of the same materials or the arrangement of the feathers forming the 'bird.


Exceptional box with an extremely rare medallion attributed to Jean-Jacques Hettlinger, completely comparable to the work carried out on the medallion of Louis XVI.

3.2 inches in diameter
2.2 cm in height

59.8 grams

Good condition. The scale rings feature eaters. The interior veneer of the lid is split in two places with a gap. The wax medallion, like those of Louis XVI's medallion, presents cracks and "reflections" depending on the viewing angle. Its state of conservation, still in comparison with the Benneman medal, is very good.



Hand delivery in Paris or sending by insured Colissimo.
France: 15€
Europe: 20€
World: €35