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Lot Essay
The flange of this box is engraved 'Govers a Paris' which suggests that the box was either made by Daniel Gouers (fl. 1717-1748) or retailed by him. According to A. K. Snowman, Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Europe, London, 1966, pp. 71-72, 'Gouers was one of the most celebrated and sought-after makers of snuff-boxes and tabatières-à-portrait in Paris during the second and third decades of the eighteenth century. Unfortunately we know very little of this craftsman's history apart from the fact that the king Louis XV, who commissioned him again and again, must have held his work in high esteem. [..] His official appointments were Orfèvre ordinaire de la Reine and Marchand orfèvre joaillier de leurs Majestés.' Snowman also points out that boxes by Gouers are 'very rare indeed'. There is very little information regarding the craftsmen who practised the art of piqué, and only one artist, Devair, is recorded as having worked in this medium towards the end of the Régence. The high quality of the piqué on the the cover of this box suggests that it could be his work although no signed work by him is recorded. It is interesting to see how fashionable Japanese lacquer was at the French Court as early as the 1730s. The techniques were developed in Japan in the 1680s and apparently so popular in Europe as to be copied only fifty years later by Parisian lacquer craftsmen. One may conjecture that these French artists must have seen Japanese originals in the collection of one of the very few extremely wealthy French connoisseurs able to afford such highly prizes, rare and exotic objects.