BY JEAN DUCROLLAY (FL. 1734-1761), MARKED, PARIS, 1754/1755, WITH THE CHARGE AND DECHARGE MARKS OF JULIEN BERTHE 1750-1756

Jean Ducrollay (b. 1709) was among the most esteemed and prolific of the 18th Century Parisian goldsmiths. When he entered his mark on 26 July 1734, his address was Rue Lamoignon, and by 1748 he was living in the Place Dauphine. The Corporation of Goldsmiths named him Commissaire du grand bureau des pauvres. His outstanding reputation is praised by A.K. Snowman (Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Europe, London, 1966, p. 77): 'Many of the most beautiful gold boxes produced in the reign of Louis XV were made in the workshop of Jean Ducrollay, and his is the name that first suggests itself both for unvarying brilliance and craftsmanship and freshness of design'. The name Ducrollay frequently appears in the accounts of the Menus Plaisirs and those of the Ministère des Affaires Étrangères. Works by him are in the collections of the Louvre, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Wallace Collection and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ducrollay died in Mantes in 1770.