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Lot Essay
Research by the late Brian Beet has established that Elias Russel or Roussel was the son of Jean Roussel 'perruquier a Leicester Fields' who was originally from Metz in northern France, and his wife Ester Helot. Elias was baptised in London in 1710. While nothing is known of his apprenticeship it is likely, given the French style and character of his gold boxes, that he was trained on the Continent before returning to London by 1739 when he is recorded in the rate books of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.
It seems almost certain that he was not a shopkeeper but a craftsman working for others who supplied him with material. According to the surviving accounts of the firm Parker and Wakelin from 1766 to 1772 he was supplying them with a variety of gold objects including snuff-boxes and jewellery both for specific clients and 'for shop stock'. He seems, like so many eighteenth century goldsmiths, to have fallen on hard times and he died without assets by 1793. See B. Beet, 'Foreign snuff-box makers in eighteenth century London', The Silver Society Journal, no.14, 2002, pp. 72-73.
It seems almost certain that he was not a shopkeeper but a craftsman working for others who supplied him with material. According to the surviving accounts of the firm Parker and Wakelin from 1766 to 1772 he was supplying them with a variety of gold objects including snuff-boxes and jewellery both for specific clients and 'for shop stock'. He seems, like so many eighteenth century goldsmiths, to have fallen on hard times and he died without assets by 1793. See B. Beet, 'Foreign snuff-box makers in eighteenth century London', The Silver Society Journal, no.14, 2002, pp. 72-73.