This box displays an interesting enamel technique whereby a mixture of champlevé, painted and basse taille enamels combine to produce a cloisonné effect. At this date the basic engraving would have been executed by machine and then completed and enamelled by hand. It is probable that the technique was pioneered by J. F. Bautte & Cie in Geneva and that the present box either originated in their workshops or was created by their enamellers. It is extremely unlikely that this complicated and difficult technique would have been used by a small-time watch case maker in Paris and it is therefore almost certain that Décor’s mark on the box (and another very similar example) was a mark de convenance, used to legitimise an imported article. Unsurprisingly, Moïse (Moyse) Jacques Décor had strong connections with Geneva, his birthplace in January 1784. Born into a line of Geneva smallworkers, his grandfather Samuel entered his maker’s mark as a goldsmith in 1736; his father Isaac entered his mark and also made a pair of buckles as his masterpiece in 1774. Isaac is listed on the citizen’s register of 1794 but neither he nor his wife, Jeanne Pernette Mazory (Malloury), nor their son Moïse Jacques appears in the censuses of 1797 or 1798, although Isaac is included as a late addition to the list of participants of the share-out made on the dissolution of the goldsmiths’ guild in 1799. It is probable that the family had already left Geneva for Paris, where Isaac died in 1810 at 15 rue de la Calandre. Moïse Jacques first appears in Paris records as a casemaker entering an incuse lozenge mark in 1810/11, but without an address. He is listed, also on the Ile de la Cité and around the corner from the rue de la Calandre, at 4 rue de la Vieille Draperie, in the Almanach of 1827 and 1829. On 24 September 1833, he enters a new vertical lozenge mark, that seen on this box, once again choosing an apple and arrow as différent, presumably in reference to his Swiss origins. By this date he had moved – again nearby – to 7 rue de la Lanterne, later absorbed into the rue de la Cité, where he remained until retirement in 1842. Between these dates a further Décor, without a first name, is recorded as horloger at 43 rue de la Calandre. It is possible that Moïse Jacques had a brother, so far not traced, but it is more probable that he was running two linked businesses. On his retirement, Décor moved with his wife, Marie Madeleine Dorée, to Malesherbes, Loiret, where he died on 13 January 1848

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