Lot Essay
The present reliefs of Henry IV and his Minister of Finance and Agriculture, Maximilien de Bethume, duc de Sully appear in gilt-bronze on a pair of pedestal cabinets in the Wallace Collection, London (Watson, loc. cit.). The portrait of Henri IV is from a well-known original by the French court sculptor Guillaume Dupré (Jones, op. cit., no. 20, p. 67), and the pendant is described as from the 'school of Dupré'
The existence of these reliefs in gilded tortoishell is extremely unusual but can be related to the work of artisans who produced pressed reliefs in horn in the late 17th and early 18th century. Among these craftsmen the best-known exponent was perhaps John Obrisset, a Frenchman of Huguenot extraction whose family moved to England after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1693. The signed horn box incorporating a portrait relief of Charles I after the medal by John Roetiers is a relevant comparison (Hardwick, op. cit., illustration on page 117)
The existence of these reliefs in gilded tortoishell is extremely unusual but can be related to the work of artisans who produced pressed reliefs in horn in the late 17th and early 18th century. Among these craftsmen the best-known exponent was perhaps John Obrisset, a Frenchman of Huguenot extraction whose family moved to England after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1693. The signed horn box incorporating a portrait relief of Charles I after the medal by John Roetiers is a relevant comparison (Hardwick, op. cit., illustration on page 117)