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Lot Essay
This snuff-box is one of the earliest known examples of snuff-boxes enamelled en plein with scenes after 17th century Dutch painters. The scene on the cover is after a combination of David Teniers the Younger’s Interior of an inn with dancing peasants painted in 1645 and Jan Steen’s The Dancing Couple for the base, dated circa 1662, while the base scene borrows from David Teniers' Peasants eating and drinking in an interior circa 1662 and Jan Steen's The Merry Family dated circa 1668.
POPULAR SCENES WITH FRENCH COLLECTORS
Both artists were famous 17th century painters of peasant life who enjoyed an international popularity during their lifetime and later in the 18th century, especially in France. Indeed, French collectors actively sought these rustic genre scenes and logically artists and craftsmen responded to their clientele’s taste by using their work derived from engravings and adapting them for use on tapestries to snuff-boxes.
One of the earliest uses of Teniers scenes on a snuff-box is one by Henri Delobel dated 1749-1750 now in the Gilbert Collection housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum (LOAN:GILBERT.407-2008) reproduced in shell and hardstone set in engraved and enamelled gold.
TIRON DE NANTEUIL
Jean-Marie Tiron was the son of Pierre Tiron (fl.1701-57) and part of a well-known family of gold box makers. He became master on 27 November 1748, sponsored by Jean Briceau. In 1749 he was working in partnership with his brother François-Guillaume Tiron (fl. 1747-75) in the family workshop, La Pomme d'or in the rue St Louis. The partnership was dissolved in 1756 and he moved to new premises on the same street called À la Pomme de diamants.
In 1761 he acquired the business of the celebrated gold box maker Jean Ducrollay and moved into his house on the place Dauphine. Ducrollay continued working with him until before 1765 (see V. Bastien, in S.Casteluccio dir., Le Commerce du luxe à Paris au XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, 2009). Indeed, although Tiron described himself as bijoutier du Roi, in 1764 the firm is still referred to as 'Tiron et Ducrollay', and it isn't until 1765 that Tiron is mentioned alone. To mark this new partnership, he struck a new mark JT in 1761 to replace the JMT mark registered in 1748. In 1773 he is described as 'ancien bijoutier du Roy' so it must be assumed that he had retired by this time, although he is recorded at the house in the rue du Cimetière St André in 1781.
Although this box, stamped with his first mark JMT, predates the partnership with Ducrollay, Tiron collaborated with the same elite enamel painters such as Le Sueur, Hamelin, Liot and Aubert for the ones who signed their work. However, as often is the case, the enamels on this box are unsigned, but in this instance the style of painting is comparable to a box by Jean Ducrollay made in 1759-1760, the same year as the present lot is also decorated with scenes after Teniers (Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 310-1885) suggesting the same hand, though unidentified.
POPULAR SCENES WITH FRENCH COLLECTORS
Both artists were famous 17th century painters of peasant life who enjoyed an international popularity during their lifetime and later in the 18th century, especially in France. Indeed, French collectors actively sought these rustic genre scenes and logically artists and craftsmen responded to their clientele’s taste by using their work derived from engravings and adapting them for use on tapestries to snuff-boxes.
One of the earliest uses of Teniers scenes on a snuff-box is one by Henri Delobel dated 1749-1750 now in the Gilbert Collection housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum (LOAN:GILBERT.407-2008) reproduced in shell and hardstone set in engraved and enamelled gold.
TIRON DE NANTEUIL
Jean-Marie Tiron was the son of Pierre Tiron (fl.1701-57) and part of a well-known family of gold box makers. He became master on 27 November 1748, sponsored by Jean Briceau. In 1749 he was working in partnership with his brother François-Guillaume Tiron (fl. 1747-75) in the family workshop, La Pomme d'or in the rue St Louis. The partnership was dissolved in 1756 and he moved to new premises on the same street called À la Pomme de diamants.
In 1761 he acquired the business of the celebrated gold box maker Jean Ducrollay and moved into his house on the place Dauphine. Ducrollay continued working with him until before 1765 (see V. Bastien, in S.Casteluccio dir., Le Commerce du luxe à Paris au XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, 2009). Indeed, although Tiron described himself as bijoutier du Roi, in 1764 the firm is still referred to as 'Tiron et Ducrollay', and it isn't until 1765 that Tiron is mentioned alone. To mark this new partnership, he struck a new mark JT in 1761 to replace the JMT mark registered in 1748. In 1773 he is described as 'ancien bijoutier du Roy' so it must be assumed that he had retired by this time, although he is recorded at the house in the rue du Cimetière St André in 1781.
Although this box, stamped with his first mark JMT, predates the partnership with Ducrollay, Tiron collaborated with the same elite enamel painters such as Le Sueur, Hamelin, Liot and Aubert for the ones who signed their work. However, as often is the case, the enamels on this box are unsigned, but in this instance the style of painting is comparable to a box by Jean Ducrollay made in 1759-1760, the same year as the present lot is also decorated with scenes after Teniers (Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 310-1885) suggesting the same hand, though unidentified.