On November 15, 1894, King Carol I and Queen Elisabeth celebrated their silver wedding, on which occasion many important figures from the royal entourage offered them various gifts: decorative vases, snuff boxes, boxes, platters, tea and coffee sets. In the precious metal collection of Peleș Castle, consisting of approximately 3000 pieces, the silver snuff box, offered to the royal couple by the great Romanian industrialist, Dumitru Marinescu Bragadiru (1842-1915), attracts attention - among others. Owner of the renowned "Bragadiru Brewery", he becomes "Supplier of the Royal Court" due to the quality of his products.
The snuffbox that Bragadiru offered to the royal couple was commissioned in 1894 from the famous German goldsmith Paul Telge (1840-1909), owner of the “Moderne und Antike kunstobjecte” workshop in Berlin, who enriched the castle’s precious metal collection through his creations. The silver piece, worked in the hammering technique, with dimensions of 16.5 x 9 cm (H- 2.3 cm) and a weight of 294 gr. 800‰, is made up of two bodies (trays) joined by a hinge. The snuffbox has a parallelepiped shape with rounded corners, and on the side, as a closing button, it is not by chance that a sapphire cabochon was chosen, a symbol of protection, luck, longevity, health and the fulfillment of desires.
The lower body, which constitutes the base of the snuffbox, is decorated in relief with a scene from the War of Independence, the surrender of Osman Pasha. The subject is not chosen randomly, but glorifies the most important event during the reign of King Carol I, the gaining of Romania's state independence. The image was inspired by the drawings of the famous documentary painter Carol Popp de Szathmari (1812-1887). The horizontally arranged composition reflects the movement, air and spirit of the moment. The scene accurately captures the episode of the meeting between the two armies and their representatives. On the right side of the composition are the Romanian cavalry troops; in the center of the image, King Carol I, riding on his mule, shakes the hand of the defeated general of the Crescent Army, Osman Pasha (1832-1900), transported in a cart due to a leg wound; on the left, the Turkish army was represented.
The upper body or the lid is also decorated in relief, with a vertical composition, representing the allegories of the four great institutions of the state, which led to the creation of modern Romania. Centrally, in a cartouche with rocaille motifs, the figure of King Carol I surmounted by the royal crown is framed by four draped allegorical characters, in a sitting position, leaning against each other, with their gaze directed towards the monogram, as a recognition of the contribution of the Romanian monarchy to the development of the country. These are rendered by three female characters embodying Faith, Justice, Arts and Crafts and a male character, symbol of Commerce. Each of these is endowed with the specific insignia. The Faith or Institution of the church is represented by a character with the cross and the Bible in his hands, next to the old foundation of Voivode Neagoe Basarab from 1517, restored by the French architect André Lecomte du Noüy, between 1875 and 1886, at the behest of the Romanian royal family and chosen as the eternal resting place of all its members. Justice is depicted as a young woman alongside her well-known symbols, the sword and the scales; Arts and crafts have as defining elements in the decoration of the snuffbox, objects of art and architectural elements. Commerce is represented by a male character with a locomotive and an anchor next to them. Lower on the lid, against a background of floral-vegetal motifs, the snuffbox is decorated with a phylactery engraved with the date "1869 3-15 November 1894", the year of marriage and the silver wedding anniversary of the first royal couple of Romania. Both trays are decorated on the edges with bands of rocaille motifs. The inside of the snuffbox is gilded and on the border of the lower body the name of the recipient and the patron are engraved: "Dedicated to His Majesty, Carol I, King of Romania – by DM Bragadiru".