BY GABRIEL-RAOUL MOREL (FL. 1797-1832), MARKED, PARIS, WITH THE PARISIAN THIRD STANDARD AND EXCISE MARKS FOR GOLD 1819-1838, AND THE UNOFFICIAL PARISIAN POST-REVOLUTIONARY STANDARD MARK FOR 18-CARAT GOLD

Details

A FRENCH ENAMEL AND GOLD SNUFF-BOX
BY GABRIEL-RAOUL MOREL (FL. 1797-1832), MARKED, PARIS, WITH THE PARISIAN THIRD STANDARD AND EXCISE MARKS FOR GOLD 1819-1838, AND THE UNOFFICIAL PARISIAN POST-REVOLUTIONARY STANDARD MARK FOR 18-CARAT GOLD
rectangular gold-lined box, the cover, sides and base inset with enamel plaques mounted en cage and painted with domestic scenes after, or in the manner of, Teniers, within bright-cut gold mounts engraved with foliage enclosing rosettes, the four column pilasters engraved with flutes and foliage, the cover enamel depicting villagers dancing outside a tavern, the base with three gentleman seated around a barrel in a tavern smoking clay pipes, drinking and eating, with two others standing also smoking and two men drinking in front of the fireplace, the front side with a couple dancing inside a tavern, with a mother seated at a table with her child a small dog begging before her, on the right side an alchemist and his assistant seated before a fireplace stirring the embers of a fire with bellows, with a gentleman eating at a table, on the reverse two dice players at a table with a third standing to the left, three men gathered near to the fireplace, on the left side two gentlemen sit smoking clay pipes at a tavern table, waiting to be served food and drink
3 1/8 in. (81 mm.) wide

Provenance

Antiquorum, Geneva, 14 May 2017, lot 176.
Sotheby's, London, 10 December 1973, lot 85.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

The enamelled scenes are in the style of David Teniers the Younger (1610-90), whose paintings were extremely popular with the aristocracy and therefore a source of inspiration for enamel artists particularly in France and Switzerland. Teniers is considered the leading Flemish genre painter, known especially for developing the peasant genre, tavern scenes, and scenes with alchemists and physicians, all featured on this box.
Gabriel-Raoul Morel (1764-1832) who struck his mark as early as 1797 is first fully recorded by Douet in 1806 although a Morel, unidentified by Christian name is referred to in 1804. Douet gives Morel's address as 5 Place Thionville.
The number of boxes with Napoleonic associations suggest that Morel supplied the Imperial court. Together with Vachette and Fossin, Morel may be considered as one of the most important French gold boxes makers of the first half of the 19th Century. The Gilbert Collection contains six of his boxes, see Charles Truman, The Gilbert Collection of Gold Boxes, Los Angeles, 1991, nos. 40, 44, 45, 46 and 47.

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