Snuffbox with Drunken Silenus
Snuffbox with Drunken Silenus
France, Paris
1778–1779
Drais, Pierre François; de Gault, Jacques Joseph (miniature)
Gold, enamel, pearls, painted carnelian, glass
Marks: maker’s mark, charge and discharge marks of Jean Baptiste Fouache, 1774–1780, date letter P, 1778–1779
Although unsigned, the en camaïeu miniature painted with Drunken Silenus on an oval carnelian panel is evidently the work of Jacques Joseph de Gault (1738–1817) on the basis of stylistic comparison with later signed works. For a more detailed discussion of other works on hardstone by de Gault mounted on snuffboxes by Drais and Vachette. The dendritic decoration on this and the following box is more sketchy, painted in a range of broken lines, dots and blots that appear to float on the softly mottled enamel ground. Indeed, the technique used on these two boxes is so similar that both may have been painted by the same outsourced independent enameller.
Rather
than being picked out with white enamel beading, the borders are set with small
pearls, a fashion that emerged in the second half of the 1770s.
6367PC480/ДПИ