A LOUIS XV GOLD-MOUNTED LACQUER CARNET DE BAL

Details

A LOUIS XV GOLD-MOUNTED LACQUER CARNET DE BAL
maker's mark of Jean Ducrollay, Paris, 1752, with the charge and décharge of Julien Berthe, the lacquer Japanese, 17th Century

Rectangular, each side mounted à cage with a lacquer panel decorated in gold hiramakie on a black roironuri ground depicting pine trees and a pavilion beside a lake, the reverse in nashiji, the mounts chased with reeded strapwork sections of interlaced circles, fastening with a reeded gold pencil with flattened rosette finial and containing a gilt-edged note-book with blue silk cover, the lacquer panels cracked, marked inside the spine and on fastening
3 5/8in. (9.1cm.) high; 2 3/8in.(6cm.) wide; ½in. (1.3cm.) deep

Provenance

Probably S. E. Kennedy Esq., 24 Upper Brook Street, W.1., whose collection of objects of vertu, arms and armour and antiquities was sold in a five day sale in these Rooms, 18-22 March 1918
Sir Philip Sassoon, Bt., 25 Park Lane, W.1., recorded in the Library in the pre-1927 inventory as from the Kennedy Collection

Lot Essay

Jean Ducrollay (b. 1709) was among the most esteemed and prolific 18th Century Parisian goldsmiths. He entered his mark on 26 July, 1734 and by 1748 was living in the Place Dauphine. The livre Journal of the marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux records frequent purchases of lacquer boxes by Ducrollay, who is also recorded as a supplier of boxes to the Menus Plaisirs. For a full discussion on the trade in lacquer in 18th century France see F. J. B. Watson, 'Beckford, Mme. de Pompadour, the Duc de Bouillon and the Taste for Japanese Lacquer in 18th Century France', Gazette des Beaux-Arts, February, 1963, p. 101-127

It is interesting to compare the present lot with a gold-mounted lacquer snuff box, by Ducrollay, Paris 1750-1751, sold Christie's Geneva, 12 November 1985, lot 72

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