BY HENRI DELOBEL (FL. 1748-1785), MARKED WITH HIS PRE-1756 MAKER'S MARK, PARIS, 1753/1754, WITH THE CHARGE AND DISCHARGE MARKS OF JULIEN BERTHE 1750-1756

Details

A LOUIS XV ENAMELLED GOLD SNUFF-BOX
by Henri Delobel (fl. 1748-1785), marked with his pre-1756 maker's mark, Paris, 1753/1754, with the charge and discharge marks of Julien Berthe 1750-1756
Circular box, the hinged lid, sides and base of burnished gold, engraved and painted in translucent green basse-taille and in opaque enamel with nude children at play, the lid with two children playing see-saw on a log, the sides with a child fishing and with mounds of fruit and the base with a child holding a parrot, the borders of the box engraved with scrolls
1 13/16 in. (46 mm.) diam.

Provenance

Baroness Meyer de Rothschild, née Juliana Cohen (+ 1877), in 1862.
Hannah de Rothschild, Countess of Rosebery (1851-1890).
By descent until 1999.
The Property of The Rosebery Family Trust', Sotheby's, London, 11 February 1999, lot 180.
With Sapjo, Monte-Carlo, 1999, acquired by
Dr Anton C. R. Dreesmann (inventory no. F-236).

Literature

A. K. Snowman, Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Europe, Woodbridge, 1990, illustrated pl. 265 (erroneously as by Michel de Lassus).

Exhibited

London, South Kensington Museum, Special Exhibition of Works of Art, 1862, no. 4427 (lent by Baroness Meyer de Rothschild).

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The subject on the lid is adapted from Fessard's engraving for his Jeux d'enfants after François Boucher's La Balançoire.
For a box by Delobel using his post-1756 maker's mark, see lot 882.

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