Items with musical mechanism and automaton

Gold snuffbox with miniatures in the grisaille technique depicting bacchanalian scenes

    Gold snuffbox with miniatures in the grisaille technique depicting bacchanalian scenes

    France, Paris

    1777–1778

    Master Drais, P.; Miniatures by de Gault, J.

    Shell (imitating agate), multi-colored gold, ivory, glass; chasing, grisaille, painting

    3.3 x 8.2 x 4.3 cm

    Marks: of the tax collector JULIEN ALATERRE 1768-1775, city assay. Signed on the miniature on the lid: 'J.J. DE GAULT. Maker's mark, marks of the tax collector and controller Jean-Baptiste Fouache (1774–1780), date mark "O" (1777–1778), countermark of Henry Clavel (1780–1782); miniatures on the lid and the bottom panel are signed: “J J DeGault”

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    The gold snuffbox features a rectangular shape with chamfered corners, inserts of colored mother-of-pearl with miniatures in the grisaille technique, and a hinged lid. Under the lid, there is a tobacco compartment with marks on the mirror-polished surfaces. The lid, side walls, and the bottom panel are decorated. In the center of each insert, there is an oval miniature under glass, executed in gouache on a slate-gray background.The plots of the compositions on the lid and the base are borrowed from a frieze depicting a “thiasus” — a bacchanalic procession on the Borghese Vase, a monumental bell-shaped crater executed in Athens from Pentelic marble in the second half of the 1st century BC as a garden decoration for the Roman market, currently stored in the Louvre. The thiasus is an ecstatic procession of participants in the Dionysian mysteries, accompanying Dionysus, clad in a panther skin and playing the aulos, and Ariadne. To balance the composition on the lid, the author added an additional figure of a satyr carrying a vase on the left. The miniatures on the side panels depict satyrs and frolicking putti, while the chamfered facets depict vases on pedestals. The inserts, miniatures, and fluted pilasters on the vertical edges are framed by chased borders of two-colored gold with a floral ornament. The snuffbox is stored in an original black leather case.





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    2598.1-2MC502/ДПИ