A LOUIS XV JEWELLED VARI-COLOUR GOLD AND GLASS BOÎTE-À-MINIATURE

BY JOSEPH-ÉTIENNE BLERZY, MARKED, PARIS, 1772/1773, WITH THE CHARGE AND DISCHARGE MARKS OF JULIEN ALATERRE, THE FLANGE ENGRAVED WITH RETAILER'S NAME "DUVERGIER À PARIS", THE MINIATURE BY JACQUES-JOSEPH DE GAULT

Details

A LOUIS XV JEWELLED VARI-COLOUR GOLD AND GLASS BOÎTE-À-MINIATURE
by Joseph-Étienne Blerzy, marked, Paris, 1772/1773, with the charge and discharge marks of Julien Alaterre, the flange engraved with retailer's name "DUVERGIER À PARIS", the miniature by Jacques-Joseph de Gault
Circular box, the independent lid centred by an oval miniature painted en grisaille on a blue ground depicting a couple with a bull sacrificing at an altar with a priest, a satyr in the background, within a rose-cut diamond border and gold frame with ribbon-tie surmount, on a circular translucent blue glass panel on an engine-turned concentrical ground, the base and eight side panels similarly decorated, the rims chased with stylized acanthus in two-colour gold
75 mm. (2.15/16 in.) diam.

Provenance

C. H. T. Hawkins, London; (+) part I, Christie's, London, 22 March 1904, lot 216 (£110 to Partridge).

Lot Essay

Joseph-Etienne Blerzy was one of the most famous and prolific of all French gold box makers. He attained the maîtrise after eighteen years of apprenticeship. Blerzy survived the French Revolution and was last mentioned in 1806.
For another gold box by Blerzy, see the following lot and for a box by his close relative Etienne-Lucien Blerzy, see lot 215.

More from Objects of Vertu

View All