Vintage Hand Painted Limouge Needle Box

This is a vintage hand painted Limouge Needle Box. A hand-painted depiction of a sailing ship on the water against a sunset or coastal sky, complete with distant birds and rocky cliffs. Features a hinged metal mount, typical of decorative porcelain pill, snuff, or needle boxes made in France. French porcelain craftsmanship from the Limoges region can be confirmed through the maker's marks on the underside as shown in the photos. Dimensions: 70mm (L) x 20mm (H) x 30mm (D) Limoges History Limoges porcelain boxes were first created in the mid-18th century after Jacques Turgot, Finance Minister of King Louis XVI, gave a Royal edict to the city of Limoges, France the exclusive right to produce Royal Limoges porcelain for the Kingdom of France. The first Limoges trinket boxes were long narrow containers that were created for expensive needles. From here, other shapes of limoges porcelain boxes evolved. The earliest were those that held thimbles and embroidery scissors and then round flat Limoges boxes were formed and used as powder boxes, and/or snuff boxes. Under Louis XIV these small boxes were used to hold a lock of lady's hair or small poem. Exactly when and who made the first porcelain snuffbox is up for debate. There were faience snuffboxes that were produced sometime around 1730. These cannot be identified by back stamp marks, for none were put on them. There were four big porcelain factories that made snuff boxes around this time, Chantilly porcelain (1725–1800), Saint-Cloud porcelain (1677–1766), Mennecy porcelain (1734–73), and the royal Vincennes porcelain (1740–56), which moved to become Sèvres porcelain (1756–present). Additionally independent makers produced them with no signature or marking.