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An important gold box in the Louis XVI taste
by Carl Fabergé,
circular red gold, engraved to the sides and bottom with love trophies,
the lid mounted with a gouache miniature en grisaille by Jacques-Joseph
de Gault, dated 1771, of two nymphs attending a bust of pan.
Chief Workmaster: Henrik Wigström,
St. Petersburg, 1908-1917.
7 cm in diameter
4.5 cm high
The identity of the French eighteenth century miniaturist de
Gault has been confused by
the existence of two painters of the same name Pierre-Marie de Gault de Saint
Germain and
Jacques-Joseph de Gault. A Kenneth Snowman examines the question in depth in
Eighteenth
Century Gold boxes of Europe (London, 1990), pages 180-182. His study suggests
the miniaturist
of the above scene is Jacques-Joseph whose dates are approximately 1738-1812.
Fabergé used red gold to similar effect for the Imperial Pelican Easter Egg,
engraved
in the Empire Taste and given by Nicholas II to the Dowager Tsarina Marie
Feodorovna for Easter 1898.
Exhibited:
Carl Fabergé: Goldsmith to the Tsar,
National Museum of Sweden,
1997, number 69.
For additional information regarding the above piece please contact Wartski