Ambroise-Nicolas Cousinet entered his mark in Paris in 1745 under the patronage of the celebrated Royal goldsmith Claude Ballin. Although Cousinet is better known for works in silver than for gold boxes notably the sixteen silver-gilt figures made between 1757 and 1758 for José de Mascarenhas da Silva , Duke of Aveiro (1708–1759) and now in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon, the boxes he made were of excellent quality. Thus his large snuff-box enamelled with Turqueries after Francois Boucher dated 1763 illustrated in Kenneth Snowman, The Ortiz-Patiño Collection of Gold Boxes, 1974, no. 35, is considered as masterpiece. The Louvre Museum holds one of his gold and enamel boîte à mouches dated 1773 (OA 80010- Serge Grandjean, Les tabatières du musée du Louvre, Paris, 1981, no. 68).