MAKER'S MARK INDISTINCT, PARIS, 1744/1745, WITH THE CHARGE AND DECHARGE MARKS OF ANTOINE LESCHAUDEL 1744-1750

This box is very similar in shape and style to a gold box of 1745 by the Parisian silversmith Philipp-Antoine Magimel (Fl. 1721-1770), illustrated in A. Kenneth Snowman, Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Europe, Woodbridge, 1990, p. 118, pl. 211. Magimel is known to have worked with the celebrated goldsmith Daniel Gouers. He struck his mark in 1721 and was garde du Corps de l'Orfèvrerie de Paris in 1736/1737, 1737/1738 and 1751/1752. In 1751, his nomination as grande-garde was empeached by the opposition of Noël Hardivilliers, Alexis Porcher and several other ex-gardes, whereas Julien Berthe acted in his favour. Nevertheless, Magimel became grande-garde in 1752 and consul in 1759. He died in 1772, aged 80.