MARK OF JEAN-JOSEPH BARRIÈRE, PARIS, 1779

Details

A LOUIS XVI ENAMELLED GOLD SNUFF-BOX
MARK OF JEAN-JOSEPH BARRIÈRE, PARIS, 1779
Oblong, the cover, base and sides enamelled in opalescent pink grisaille of landscape scenes over guilloché engine-turned ground, within gold borders chased in high relief with scrolling foliage, flowers and pearls enamelled in green, white, blue and red on matted ground, marked in cover, side and base with charge, date-letter (q) and maker; and on flange with decharge and workshop number 2161
3 ¾ in. (9.4 cm.) long
gross weight 3 oz. 9 dwt. (108 gr.)

Provenance

Jaime Ortiz-Patiño (1930-2013).
The Jaime Ortiz-Patiño Collection, Part II; Christie's, London, 27 November 1973, lot 7.
with Wartski, London.
Acquired from the above by the Blaquier-Arrieta Family.

Literature

A. K. Snowman, Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Paris. A Catalogue of the J. Ortiz-Patiño Collection, London, 1974, p. 117, cat. no. 53.
A. K. Snowman, Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Paris, London, 1990 ed., p. 230, pls. 472 A and B.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

Jean-Joseph Barrière was apprenticed to Charles-Nicolas Loys Dumoussay from 1750 until 1755, when Dumoussay encountered financial difficulties. As Henri Delobel sponsored Barrière when he registered his maker's mark, it is likely that he completed his apprenticeship under Delobel. Barrière received a royal brevet as goldsmith to Queen Marie-Antoinette sometime before 1778. He remained active until 1793.

Barrière was a prolific maker of gold boxes and, as evidence of his success, he ranked sixth out of twenty-two gold box makers for the impôt du vingtième between 1782 and 1785 (see H. Williams, The David and Mikhail Iakobachvili Collection, Snuffboxes: Compendium, Monaco, 2026, pp. 93-94).

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