Victorian Silver & Enamel Cigarette Case - "The Guitar Player" Giovanni Boldini

A Victorian silver Cigarette Case of curved rounded rectangular form, with sprung hinge and push-button opening mechanism, the gilded interior with two straps for retaining cigarettes, the lid with inset enamel panel painted with a beautiful young woman playing a guitar and serenading a toreador. After the oil painting by Giovani Boldini. Signed with 'CF' cypher to bottom right-hand corner for Courmont Frères.

By Sampson Mordan & Co, London 1891.

The fine quality enamel painting on this Cigarette Case has clearly been inspired by the famous oil painting; "The Guitar Player", by Italian Artist Giovanni Boldini, completed in 1873 when he was living in Paris. The painting depicts a flirtatious encounter between a beautiful young woman wearing a lace mantilla and strumming a guitar. She serenades a young man seated on a table with a decanter and glass of wine by his side, a cigarette nonchalantly held in his mouth. He is dressed as a toreador and wears the traditional bullfighters colourful "Suit of Lights". A poster on the wall advertises the forthcoming bullfight. The painting is both charming and provocative.

Giovanni Boldini was an Italian genre and portrait painter who lived and worked in Paris for most of his career. According to a 1933 article in Time Magazine, he was known as the "Master of Swish" because of his flowing style of painting. Boldini first attained success as a portraitist in London, completing portraits of premier members of English society including Lady Holland and the Duchess of Westminster. From 1872, he lived in Paris, where he became a friend of Edgar Degas and became the most fashionable portrait painter in Paris in the late 19th century, with a dashing style of painting which shows some Macchiaioli influence.

The Cigarette Case is signed in the bottom right hand corner with the cypher; "CF", for Courmont Frères. The Courmont Brothers were prolific lithographic printers in Paris in the late 19th century and were particularly well known for their colourful advertising posters.

The attributions to Boldini and Courmont Frères, both located in Paris, gives further credence to the belief that a lot of the best enamel work produced by Sampson Mordan & Co was undertaken in France before being returned to England.

Reserved - £1,350.00