Diest, 1778, Queen's Water Box, Paulus Ioannes Van Den Bon, Solid Silver

Very pretty little fly or water box from the Louis XVI period in solid silver. It bears a very rare master's mark from a goldsmith from a very small town in Brabant, Diest, whose pieces are incredibly rare. Paulus Ioannes Van den Bon was born in Mechelen in 1729 and obtained his mastery as a goldsmith in 1753 in the goldsmiths' guild of Brussels. A year later he was found in the very small town of Diest on the border between the Duchy of Brabant and the County of Limburg. There he took the oath as a bourgeois of the town and established himself as a master goldsmith. He died there in 1808. Religious works by him are mainly listed in the treasures of countless churches in Diest and the surrounding area. His master's mark seems to announce his specialty: a bishop's mitre. The other hallmarks on the bottom of the box are those of the university town of Leuven, where the surrounding goldsmiths had to have their goldwork tested and hallmarked. The Queen of Hungary's water was a perfume based on rosemary, orange blossom and rose water, which was very popular in the eighteenth century. According to legend, a hermit offered it to a queen of Hungary, who was 72 years old at the time. She used the miracle water for a year and, suffering from the ailments of old age, she then regained her health, shape and the beauty of her twenties. A prodigious story of which there is a written trace: "I, Dona Isabelle, Queen of Hungary, being seventy-two years old, very infirm and gouty, used the following recipe for a whole year (…) Which had such an effect that at the same time I was cured and regained my strength, so that appearing beautiful to everyone, the King of Poland wanted to marry me: which I refused." It was then called the Water of the Queen of Hungary. Historians have recently looked into this legend, wanting to find this queen who gave her name to the perfume. Several queens are then mentioned between 1370 and 1666, without any of them being able to correspond to the testimony of this 72-year-old queen. The reality would therefore ultimately be less miraculous since it could be the first "marketing stunt" in history. The perfumers of Montpellier are said to have invented the story out of whole cloth to arouse the curiosity and lust of their customers and thus introduce the water of the Queen of Hungary to the court of Louis XIV! Madame de Maintenon, governess of the children of Louis XIV whom he married in secret after the death of his legitimate wife, made this water her favorite product. She also recommended it to the boarders of the royal house of Saint-Cyr to protect them from diseases and epidemics. Madame de Sévigné was also a very regular user, writing to her daughter Madame de Grignan: "I am crazy about it, it is the relief of all my sorrows". Until the end of the 18th century, the fame of this water with a thousand benefits continued to grow. It was then gradually replaced by another famous water, Eau de Cologne. However, it did not fall completely into oblivion. Our little box weighs 20 grams.