Shell-shaped snuffbox with a portrait of king Stanislaus Leszczynski
Shell-shaped snuffbox with a portrait of king Stanislaus Leszczynski
Germany (?), France, Paris
Circa 1725
Unidentified maker; later additions by de Serre, Claude
Gold, enamel, mother-of-pearl, painted vellum, glass
2.9 × 7.8 × 6.2 cm
Marks: maker’s mark of Claude de Serre, charge and menus ouvrages discharge of Jacques Cottin and Louis Gervais, countermark of Hubert Louvet
The decoration of the lid panel should be compared with that on an unmarked oval box with very similar decoration, formerly in the Rothschild/de Redé collections, and with an engraved design for a similar box cover included in «Neues sehr dienliches Goldschmids Büchlein» by Paul Decker (1677–1713) of Nuremberg, published in the early eighteenth century
The
portrait later set into the interior lid of this box depicts Stanislaus
Leszczynski (1677–1766) and is after a painting by Jean Girardet (1709 1778),
appointed ‘Ordinary painter to the King of Poland’ in 1758. Leszczynski, a
protégé of Carl XII of Sweden (1682–1718), was elected King of Poland in 1704 but
lost the throne to Saxony five years later. In 1725 his daughter Marie (1703
1768) was married unexpectedly to the young Louis XV (1710–1774), who supported
his father in-law’s claims to the Polish throne on the death of August the
Strong in 1733. In 1736, Leszczynski was compelled once again to abdicate but
was consoled with the Duchy of Lorraine, retiring to Lunéville and a quiet life
devoted to science and philosophy.
5253/ДПИ