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Lot Essay
David Le Marchand learned his craft in his native Dieppe. As a Huguenot he was forced to flee religious persecution in France and he moved to Edinburgh in 1696. He then moved to London in around 1700 and for almost three decades he was patronised by the good and the great of England, including Queen Anne and King George I, and many of the leading nobility and intellectuals of the time, including Sir Christopher Wren, Sir Isaac Newton, Samuel Pepys and John Locke.
He is recognised as the most distinguished ivory carver to have worked in England in the early eighteenth century, a period when the art enjoyed a popularity unknown since the Middle Ages. The vigorous carving of the present relief, inscribed with Le Marchand's distinctive signature, compares closely to a profile portrait relief now in the British Museum (Avery, loc. cit., inv. no. 1887,0524.8). The contemporaneous frame with a coronet of five strawberry leaves denotes the sitter as a Duke, as yet unidentified.
He is recognised as the most distinguished ivory carver to have worked in England in the early eighteenth century, a period when the art enjoyed a popularity unknown since the Middle Ages. The vigorous carving of the present relief, inscribed with Le Marchand's distinctive signature, compares closely to a profile portrait relief now in the British Museum (Avery, loc. cit., inv. no. 1887,0524.8). The contemporaneous frame with a coronet of five strawberry leaves denotes the sitter as a Duke, as yet unidentified.