Ref: 3114
Glass bonbonniere in an enamelled gold setting with a highly detailed signed enamel portrait
Ref: 3114
Glass bonbonniere in an enamelled gold setting with a highly detailed signed enamel portrait
Gold and Enamel
Provenance:
Christie's London, 20 November 2013, lot 199D. S. Lavender (Antiques) Ltd., in 2000
Literature:
Literature:Rosenberg, Marc: Der Goldschmiede Merkzeichen (The Goldsmith's Hallmark)
3rd expanded and illustrated edition. Vol. I-IV. Frankfurter Verlags-Anstalt, 1928
Description: Master's mark (not quite complete): probably Joseph Marie Roux
Hallmark for gold work Paris 1798-1809 (Rosenberg No. 6581)
Fineness mark 3. Titre = 18 carat/0.750 for gold work Paris 1798-1809
(Rosenberg No. 6567)
Elegant round glass bonbonniere set in blue enamelled yellow gold. The exquisite enamel portrait on the lid is signed ‘Gautier’ and depicts a feminine-looking blond boy in a royal blue coat, sitting on a red upholstered chair at a desk. He is writing a letter that begins with ‘Pour ma Tante / Jenny’. A window in the right background opens up a perspective view of a village setting with houses. According to tradition, this is ‘the celebrated French dancer Marie-Madelaine Guimenel, dressed as a boy, writing a letter’.
Jean Rodolphe Gautier was a geographer and painter who lived in Rome at the end of the 18th century. He shared his apartment with an architect and a colleague from Geneva. Gautier became a painter in the War Ministry and was a topographer and official painter of Bonaparte's Grande Armée. He exhibited paintings that Bonaparte acquired in 1801 and 1802 and which are now kept in Versailles. His rare, delicate miniature portraits consistently fetch high prices at international auctions.
Hallmark for gold work Paris 1798-1809 (Rosenberg No. 6581)
Fineness mark 3. Titre = 18 carat/0.750 for gold work Paris 1798-1809
(Rosenberg No. 6567)
Elegant round glass bonbonniere set in blue enamelled yellow gold. The exquisite enamel portrait on the lid is signed ‘Gautier’ and depicts a feminine-looking blond boy in a royal blue coat, sitting on a red upholstered chair at a desk. He is writing a letter that begins with ‘Pour ma Tante / Jenny’. A window in the right background opens up a perspective view of a village setting with houses. According to tradition, this is ‘the celebrated French dancer Marie-Madelaine Guimenel, dressed as a boy, writing a letter’.
Jean Rodolphe Gautier was a geographer and painter who lived in Rome at the end of the 18th century. He shared his apartment with an architect and a colleague from Geneva. Gautier became a painter in the War Ministry and was a topographer and official painter of Bonaparte's Grande Armée. He exhibited paintings that Bonaparte acquired in 1801 and 1802 and which are now kept in Versailles. His rare, delicate miniature portraits consistently fetch high prices at international auctions.
you may also like
Glass bonbonniere in an enamelled gold setting with a highly detailed signed enamel portrait