Most Expensive Porcelain Snuff Box Sold at Auction: $1.3M

Most Expensive Porcelain Snuff Box

Bonhams has recently sold in London what was probably the most important collection of snuff boxes, raising a staggering $1,300,000 . The star of the sale was this 20th century porcelain snuff box, originally made for Augustus II, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. The Meissen gold-mounted box featured a very detailed Dresden landscape on the inside face of the cover. Once part of the Helmut Joseph collection of porcelain snuff boxes, the piece went for a much higher price than initially expected, fetching a whopping $1,380,000. This is of course a new world record.

There was a total of eighty pieces in the collection, and here are several other noteworthy examples: an Ellwangen or Schrezheim gild-metal mounted oval snuff box (£52,800), a gold mounted circular snuff box from Maria Josepha, Queen of Poland (£56,400) and another Meissen snuff box from Queen Maria Amalia Christina of Naples and Sicily (£78,000).

Most Expensive Porcelain Snuff Box