Snuffbox

Louis Roucel was accepted as a master by special privilege in 1763 but had evidently been practicing before then: his name, and the date 29 juillet 1756 appear on an unmarked box that is also inscribed with the name of Pierre-André Jacquemin (active 1751 – 73).(1) As Jacquemin was jeweler to Louis XV, he may be understood to have been taking responsibility for the work of the young goldsmith who had not yet earned a mark of his own. In 1759 Roucel was living in the house of the box maker and royal goldsmith Jean Ducrollay, with whom he may have been collaborating. From 1763 to 1776, Roucel, who was himself appointed orfèvre du roi in 1764, supplied the royal family with jewels and gold boxes. His latest known work is dated 1777 – 79; he had certainly retired before his death when he was described as ancien (former) goldsmith. The miniatures are by Louis-Nicolas van Blarenberghe (1716 – 1794) or his son, Henri-Joseph (1741 – 1826). Attribution to one or the other is not worth attempting: as has been pointed out, their painting styles were essentially indistinguishable and the son did not begin to identify his work through his signature until after 1769.(2) The miniatures combine generic festival scenes with apparently specific topographical views common to the work of the Van Blarenberghes in the 1760s and 1770s. The unidentified building on the cover strikes the viewer as somewhat out of character with the remaining scenes, and it may be questioned whether it was intended for this box. The concealment of the first letters of the signature under the frame suggests that the composition was designed for a rectangular format, but as little of the composition appears to be affected, this may be a marginal consideration. Most of Roucel’s boxes are tabatières à cage; the design of the frame of this work is very similar to one of 1766 – 67, of the same shape, in the Louvre, Paris.(3)

Catalogue entry from Claire Le Corbeiller. The Robert Collection. Decorative Arts, Volume XV. Wolfram Koeppe, et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2012, pp. 158-59.

NOTES:
1. Dix siecles de joaillerie française. Exhibition, Musee du Louvre, 3 May – 3 June 1962. Catalogue edited by Daniel Alcouffe, Bertrand Jestaz, and Colombe Verlet. Paris, no. 72.
2. Grandjean, Serge, Cristina Aschengreen Piacenti, Charles Truman, and Anthony Blunt. Gold Boxes and Miniatures of the Eighteenth Century. The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor. Fribourg, 1975, pp. 242 – 43.
3. Grandjean, Serge. Catalogue des tabatieres, boîtes et étuis des XVIIIe et XIXe siecles du Musée du Louvre. Paris, 1981, no. 184.

Marking: Marks:(1)
Inside the cover and the base, and in the front wall:
1. Maker’s mark of Louis Roucel, a crowned fleur-de-lis,
two grains de remède, L R, a crown below(2)
2. A rosette of fleurons, the charge mark for gold and small silver, Paris, 1768 – 74(3)
3. A crowned italic F, the warden’s mark for gold and small silver, Paris, 1769 – 70(4)
Inside the left bezel: Mark 1
Inside the right bezel:
4. A helmeted head, the discharge mark for gold and small silver, Paris 1768 – 74(5)
5. An unidentified mark
Mark 5 is repeated inside the left bezel.

NOTES:
1. Certain marks have been interpreted by Charles Truman.
2. Nocq, Henry. Le poinçon de Paris: Répertoire des maîtresorfèvres de la juridiction de Paris depuis le Moyen-Âge jusqu’à la fin du XVIIIe siècle. 5 vols. Paris, 1926 – 31, vol. 3, p. 243.
3. Bimbenet-Privat, Michèle, and Gabriel de Fontaines. La datation de l’orfèvrerie parisienne sous l’Ancien Régime: Poinçons de jurande et poinçons de la Marque, 1507 – 1792. Paris, 1995, no. 466.
4. Ibid., no. 480.
5. Ibid., no. 468.

Francis Baring (1800-1868), 3rd Baron of Ashburton; Ashburton sale, Christie's, London, 7 July 1947, lot 64 (to [Davis]), ill.