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c. 1780 Rare Georgian Sterling Silver Filigree Bougie Box

$2,600.00
Shipping calculated at checkout.
An incredible c.1780 Georgian silver filigree bougie box. 
It is a cylindrical shape with its original lid, which has
an opening for the candle to emerge. The cartouche on the front
has the initials "AC" engraved into it. 

This is a very rare bougie box, you will not find many like this. 

Approx. Dimensions:

Height:     1   1/2"
Width (w/ handle):   2" 
Approx. Weight:    23g 

Condition: Good original condition, no losses to the silver filigree. 
The handle is hinged, although it hasn't been moved in a long time, 
and we are leaving it in it's current position. 

Excerpt from "The Regency Redingote": The bougie-box was developed 
several decades after the introduction of the wax-jack. Bougie is French for 
candle, specifically a candle made of wax. The origins of the word are to 
be found in North Africa, in the Algerian city of Bijiyah, which for centuries 
had carried on a thriving trade in wax. The French called the town Bougie, 
and that same name was soon also applied to wax candles in France. 
The earliest known bougie-boxes date from the first decades of the 
eighteenth century. They appear to have been initially introduced on the 
Continent, primarily in Italy and France. Bougie-boxes had migrated to 
England by the middle of the eighteenth century and remained in use there 
well into the middle of the nineteenth century.
Essentially, a bougie-box is a roller or spindle around which a long taper has 
been coiled and is then placed inside a closed container, usually cylindrical 
and often made of metal. The taper is fed up through a small hole in the lid 
of the box for burning. The original intent of the bougie-box design was as 
a means by which to enclose and therefore protect, a long coil of beeswax 
which was to be used as light.