Lot Essay
Louis Siris appears to have been a native of Figeac in southwest France who is recorded in Florence about 1722 before arriving in Paris about 1729. In that year he entered a special maker's mark as orfevre privilige du Roi. By 1748 he was back in Florence where he served as Director of the Grand Ducal Gallery. In 1757 he published a catalogue of 168 gems which he had engraved; the collection was subsequently purchased by the Empress Maria Theresa.
The same mark of an eagle's head also appears on a gold-mounted etui in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection; Charles Truman in his catalogue suggests that this is probably a countermark and possibly provincial French (Cocks and Truman, Renaissance Jewels, Gold Boxes and Objets de Vertu, 1984, p. 296).
The same mark of an eagle's head also appears on a gold-mounted etui in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection; Charles Truman in his catalogue suggests that this is probably a countermark and possibly provincial French (Cocks and Truman, Renaissance Jewels, Gold Boxes and Objets de Vertu, 1984, p. 296).