Important Gold Boxes from a Private European Family Collection
Lot Closed
May 16, 01:52 PM GMT
Estimate
40,000 - 60,000 CHF
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Read more.Lot Details
Description
oval, the lid later applied with an ivory miniature painted with a scene from the Old Testament, in a frame of large diamonds, the ground decorated in a vermiculated pattern over opalescent gorge de pigeon enamel over engine-turning, further rose-cut diamond and opalescent enamel bead borders, the sides further richly-decorated with leafy green enamel bands bordered with tiny diamonds and a chased entrelac-de-rubans border in translucent green and opaque white enamel, matching base, maker's mark, charge and discharge marks of Jean-Baptiste Fouache, Paris date letter R, the left rim numbered 989,
8.2 cm; 3 ¼ in. wide
Christie's Geneva, 10 May 1988, lot 337
Joseph-Etienne Blerzy was born on 8 June 1735 and apprenticed on 27 February 1750 to François-Joachim Aubert, a goldsmith who specialised in mounting tortoiseshell and lacquer snuff boxes. Aubert also acted as sponsor in 1768 when Blerzy became master. After several shops at different locations, he is recorded in the Almanach de Commerce in 1806 at the rue du Coq St. Honoré, where he moved to before 1798 and worked together with his brother Etienne-Lucien Blerzy. In 1808, Etienne-Lucien’s widow (Victoire Boisot) took over the business so presumably by that date Joseph-Etienne has retired after a long career as one of the most prolific and technically-accomplished late eighteenth century Parisian gold box makers. He died on 23 April 1821.
The opulent diamonds on the lid and the amount of smaller examples decorating the sides indicate that the box was likely part of a group of gold boxes modified for the Russian market in the nineteenth century.
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