Gold snuffbox with pastoral scenes
Gold snuffbox with pastoral scenes
France, Paris
1752–1753
Author: J. Bertin
Multicolored gold; chasing, guilloché (guilloché engraving), engraving
4.0 x 7.9 x 6.0 cm
Maker's mark; marks of the assay master and controller Julien Berthe (1750–1756); date letter (letter M, 1752–1753). Note: the inscription was later engraved on the lid inner side: “Mr de Frieres”
Gold snuffbox of rectangular form with rounded vertical corners, featuring embossed chased medallions, with a hinged lid. Beneath the lid is a mirror-polished tobacco compartment.
The lid, base, and side panels are decorated with pastoral scenes taken from engravings after the French painter François Boucher (1703–1770) from Charles Duclos's book “Les Amours Pastorales”, published in 1742: “Ce Pasteur Amoureux Chante sur sa musette” (on the lid) and “Ne plaignons point le sort de ces bergers” (on the base panel). The imagery on the lid – featuring an unusual, seemingly tilting building in the background within a rocaille scroll framework adorned with flower garlands – may have been inspired by designs by Jacques de Lajoüe (1686–1761) from the series “Second Livre de tableaux et rocailles”, published by Gabriel Huquier (1695–1772).
The front panel depicts a youth playing a flute to a girl seated in front of him; the rear panel shows a boy holding a fruit basket in front of a girl eating grapes. The right side panel depicts a girl reaching toward a birdcage; the left side panel features an elderly lady in a wheelchair with a dog on a leash. The lid features a protruding thumbpiece for opening, shaped as a botanical branch tied with a ribbon. The medallions are executed on matted (chased) ground and framed by scrolls of corrugated wavy lines.
2600MC499/ДПИ