A brass Dutch snuff box, delicately engraved to each side with scenes from the Abraham Cycle paramount to Christian, Jewish and Islamic beliefs. Approx. 4 1/2 x 3 3/8 x 1 3/8 in.

The lid, inscribed "Abram Werteensoon toe geseyt," depicts Abraham's visitation by a pair of winged angels and God, at which the birth of Isaac would be prophesied. While the subjects are outfitted in typical 17th or 18th-century Dutch clothes and are gathered before a stone structure with contemporaneously-popularized paned glass windows, the image otherwise renders the scene faithfully, with the large tree to its right side, the choice calf and Abraham serving the trio to its left, and Sarah visible within the house at its center. 

The box's patinated underside, with the inscription "Abrams Offerhande," illustrates the Binding of Isaac, complete with an angel in the upper left corner and the ram entangled in thorns to the upper right. The engraver has, again, modernized the interpretation, arming Abraham with a period-inappropriate scimitar. 

The exterior is otherwise engraved with floral and botanical motifs. The lid's interior is hand-inscribed with a few characters, though the inscription is shallow and illegible. There is some light verdigris to the interior around the hinge.

[Art, Folk Art, Military Art, Etching, Engraving, Lithographs, Prints, Ephemera][Religion, Religious Art, Christianity, Christian History]