A French enamel snuff box, 1st half 19th century, the circular form painted with a double portrait

A French enamel snuff box, 1st half 19th century, the circular form painted with a double portrait of the Montgolfier brothers, in the Classical manner, reserved on a duck-egg blue ground, titled 'Etienne et Joseph Montgolfier, Freres nes a Annonay en Vivarais', with gilt metal mounts, 7.8cm across.

Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier were born in Annonay in the 1740s and began experimenting with balloon flights in the 1780s. Their first public flight took place in Annonay on 4th June 1783.