A FRENCH PARCEL-ENAMELLED VARI-COLOUR GOLD SNUFF-BOX

BY ADRIEN-JEAN-MAXIMILIEN VACHETTE (FL. 1779-1839), MARKED, PARIS, CIRCA 1800, STRUCK WITH THE PARISIAN POST-REVOLUTIONARY UNOFFICIAL STANDARD MARK FOR 18 CARAT GOLD AND THE VIENNA TOWN MARK FOR 1806-1807, THE FLANGE ENGRAVED 'ETIENNE NITOT ET FILS'

Details

A FRENCH PARCEL-ENAMELLED VARI-COLOUR GOLD SNUFF-BOX
BY ADRIEN-JEAN-MAXIMILIEN VACHETTE (FL. 1779-1839), MARKED, PARIS, CIRCA 1800, STRUCK WITH THE PARISIAN POST-REVOLUTIONARY UNOFFICIAL STANDARD MARK FOR 18 CARAT GOLD AND THE VIENNA TOWN MARK FOR 1806-1807, THE FLANGE ENGRAVED 'ETIENNE NITOT ET FILS'
oval box, the sides and base set with sablé panels of peak-pattern engine-turning within opaque sky-blue enamel fillets, the cover centred with a sablé panel set with a slightly raised chased vari-colour gold floral bouquet, the outer borders and side pilasters with stylized foliage parcel-enamelled in opaque dark-blue
3½ in. (90 mm.) wide

Brought to you by

Dido Penny

dpenny@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2794

Lot Essay

Vachette was one of the best-known of the Parisian gold box makers at the turn of the 18th to the 19th Century. He struck his mark in 1779 and later worked together with Nitot, one of the court jewellers of Emperor Napoleon I. Henry Nocq (Le poinçon de Paris, Paris, 1968, [reprint], p. 76), praises Vachette: 'Avant et après la Révolution les plus belles tabatières d'or sont marquées du poinçon de Vachette.'

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