THE FRAME LATE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY; BEARING MARKS RESEMBLING THOSE OF THE CHARGE OF ELOY BRICHARD AND ETIENNE SOMFOYE 1756-1762, AND THE DATE-LETTER FOR 1762/1763

Mother-of-pearl was from the early 18th century a popular althouhg costly choice of material for the decoration of gold boxes. Later on from circa 1750, carved mother-of-pearl was used with other material such as coral, ivory, amber and semi-precious stones such as lapis for encrusted work.
Chinoiseries were introduced in European art and decoration in the second half of the 17th century inspired by the luxury imports such as porcelain, silk and lacquerware, that had been flowing into Europe from East Asia since the early 16th century. Designers drew on these oriental motifs and ornaments from China, Japan and India to create an exotic fantasy world. Objects featured fantastic landscapes with fanciful pavilions, fabulous birds, mythical beasts and figures in Chinese clothes sometimes copied directly from Chinese objects, but more frequently originating in the designer's imagination.