WOODEN KEEPSAKE BOX FEATURING ELIAS WARBURG.

Johann Carl Frederik Viertel (Danish, 1772-1834); engraved 1804

Lidded, lacquered keepsake box featuring original portrait miniature of Elias Samuel Warburg (1729-1805). Garbed in frock-coat and vest, white chemise, his wig worn en queue. Signed and indistinctly dated on the obverse “Viert 180-”. Gilt-metal base engraved: “Eilje (Elias Samuel) Warburg, gest. 4 Schebat 5565/1804.” Hanging device on rear. Diameter: 3.75 inches.

Elias Warburg was the son of Samuel Warburg (1700-59) and Rachel Del Banco (1700-83). He is known to have lived at Altona, near Hamburg, Germany and was involved in the controversy between Rabbis Ya’akov Emden and Jonathan Eybeschutz. Warburg married firstly, Jeannette Heilbut and had three sons: the youngest of whom settled in Gothenburg, Sweden and was one of the founders of the city’s synagogue. Elias is an ancestor of the prominent Warburg banking dynasty, descended from the Venetian Jewish Del Banco family who fled Italy during the 16th century for Warburg in Germany before moving to Altona, near Hamburg a century later. The Warburg empire included, M. M. Warburg & Co. founded in 1798, the investment bank, S. G. Warburg & Co founded in London 1946 and Warburg Pincus founded in New York 1938.