BY JEAN-BAPTISTE BERTIN (FL. 1740-1771), MARKED, PARIS, 1752/1753, WITH THE CHARGE AND DECHARGE MARKS OF JULIEN BERTHE 1750-1756

The subjects that decorate the cover and base of this box are taken from engravings after François Boucher. On the cover is Ce pasteur amoureux chante sur sa musette, on the base is Ne plaignons point le sort de ces berges, both after engravings from Les Amours Pastorales by Charles Duflos after François Boucher, published in 1742. The sides also feature figures in rustic exteriors in typical Boucher poses, and may also be derived from his paintings. The enamellers and chasers decorating gold boxes in Paris at this time took inspiration from the large number of engravings by artists such as David Teniers the Younger and Jean-Baptiste Greuze, as well as from François Boucher that were circulating throughout Europe at this time. A gold box by Paul Robert, dated Paris, 1759/1760 and decorated with painted enamels of the same Boucher scenes though translated from rural exteriors to rustic interiors, is in the Wallace Collection, London. Jean-Baptiste Bertin was probably a member of the dynasty of goldsmiths of the same name, which included Claude Bertin who had a shop in 1702 on the pont au Change, with a sign ‘La Tabatiere royale’. Bertin received his maitrise in 1740 and was elected warden or garde of the guild in 1755 and grande-garde in 1770. He resided on rue St. Louis, next to the Palace, and it is at this address that the Affiches de Paris quotes his funeral as taking place at St. Barthelemy on the 8th January 1771. Gold boxes by Bertin can be found in the Louvre, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Walter's Art Gallery, Baltimore.