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Lot Essay
The Parisian goldsmith Charles-Alexandre Bouillerot was born around 1737 into a family of goldsmiths whose earliest known member was Nicolas Bouillerot (1720-1754). Charles-Alexandre apprenticed under Jean-Louis Bouillerot and was accepted as a master by the Cour des Monnaies in 1769. In 1774, he began to supply gold boxes to the prestigious firm Au Petit Dunkerque. At the beginning of the revolution he served as Captain of the Garde National Volontaire, but nothing is known of him after 1792.
Au Petit Dunkerque was one of the premier Paris retailers and served as bijoutier du roi. With marchand-mercier Charles-Reymond Grandcher as its proprietor, Dunkerque commissioned gold boxes from leading gold box makers such as Bouillerot, Blerzy and Le Bastier. The gold boxes retailed by Dunkerque were always of the lastest fashion and highest quality and were greatly sought after by the French nobility. Another gold box by Bouillerot with similar borders and with the inscription 'Du Petit Dunkerque' is in the collection of the Louvre, S. Grandjean, Les tabatieres du musée du Louvre, Paris, 1981, pp. 59-61,
no. 191.
Au Petit Dunkerque was one of the premier Paris retailers and served as bijoutier du roi. With marchand-mercier Charles-Reymond Grandcher as its proprietor, Dunkerque commissioned gold boxes from leading gold box makers such as Bouillerot, Blerzy and Le Bastier. The gold boxes retailed by Dunkerque were always of the lastest fashion and highest quality and were greatly sought after by the French nobility. Another gold box by Bouillerot with similar borders and with the inscription 'Du Petit Dunkerque' is in the collection of the Louvre, S. Grandjean, Les tabatieres du musée du Louvre, Paris, 1981, pp. 59-61,
no. 191.