Saxon Stones

While discussing the great collectors of minerals in Dresden, the secretary of the chancellery, Jean-Auguste Lehninger, cited the following in his 1782 Description of the City of Dresden: "At Neuber's, jeweler of the Court, there are many rare and beautiful stones, and all kinds of jewelry, especially a superb collection of snuffboxes made of various stones—a kind of mosaic—that surprises every connoisseur with whom Sr Neuber makes a considerable trade." The great success of Johann Christian Neuber's Steinkabinettabatieres (stone cabinet snuffboxes) and his personal interest in minerals led him to seek his own source for the stones. In 1775, Friedrich Augustus III awarded him the concession of a mine near Schlottwitz, south of Dresden, a region famous for the diversity and superior quality of its rocks.

All the specimens came from the American Museum of Natural History, New York.