Austrian Silver & Enamel Armorial Vesta Case With Slow Match

A late 19th / early 20th century Austrian silver Vesta Case with slow match compartment, the plain rectangular case with enameled Coat of Arms of the Degenfeld family to the corner of the lid. A steel striker to one side and a knurled wheel to operate the slow match with a sliding compartment to one end. Gilded interior.

By Georg Adam Scheid, Vienna, Austria, c1900.

Degenfeld, later also Degenfeld-Schonburg is the name of a German noble family. The Degenfeld-Schonburg family originated in the village of Tegenvelt, later called Degenfeld, which still exists in Swabia. The first written mention of the family is in a document from 1270, where the knight Ulrich von Degenfeld is mentioned. On the hilltop above the village of Degenfeld, traces of the first castle can still be seen. The family continued to increase its wealth over the centuries, rising to the rank of baron and later count. In 1717, Christoph Martin Degenfeld married into the Duke of Schomberg family (now extinct) and took the name Schonburg.

Blazon of arms: Quartered with red and silver over blue. Emblem: Helmet with two buffalo horns, divided diagonally over blue, red and silver. Mantle: Red and silver.

£565.00