Lot 20: A FINE LOUIS XVI PARCEL-ENAMELLED GOLD BONBONNIÈRE SET WITH A MINIATURE

by Adrien-Jean-Maximilien Vachette (1753-1839), marked, Paris, 1787/1789, with the second charge and discharge marks of Henry Clavel 1783-1789 and the charge and countermark of Jean-François Kalendrin 1789-1792, the flange engraved 'Vachette à Paris', the miniature by Jacques-Joseph de Gault (1738-1817), signed and dated 'J.J. DeGault in 1788'
Circular polished gold box, the independent cover inset with a glazed sepia miniature painted on opaline glass and simulating a sardonyx cameo, depicting Aurora, the goddess of the dawn, driving her two-horse chariot, within a burnished gold réverbère mount enamelled with a translucent blue basse-taille border and with bevelled polished gold rims, the base centred by a swirling foliate rosette of translucent blue basse-taille enamel surrounded by six smaller similarly enamelled stylized rosettes and blue surround, the polished gold sides with two matching enamel borders and eight matching rosettes
3 1/16 in. (78 mm.) diam.

French Archchancellor Jean-Jacques de Cambacérès (1753-1824).
Sold by a great-nephew of the latter to the family of the previous owner.
Christie's, Geneva, 15 November 1994, lot 105.

Vachette was one of the best-known of the Parisian gold boxes makers at the turn of the 18th to the 19th Century. He struck his mark in 1779 and later worked together with Nitot, one of the court jewellers of Emperor Napoleon I. Henry Nocq (Le poinçon de Paris, Paris, 1968, [reprint], p. 76), praises Vachette: 'Avant et après la Révolution les plus belles tabatières d'or sont marquées du poinçon de Vachette.' Serge Grandjean (et. al., The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, Fribourg, 1975, p. 344) noticed the importance of Vachette's co-operation with the miniaturist Jacques-Joseph de Gault. For two other boxes by the same 'team', see C. Truman, The Gilbert Collection of Gold Boxes, Los Angeles, 1991, pp. 108-109, and sale Christie's, London, 6 November 2001, lot 185.
The present box was part of the gold boxes collection of Archchancellor Cambacérès. Born in Montpellier, he was elected a deputy at the Convention in 1792 and favoured the execution of King Louis XVI. His legal projects of 1793 were fundamental for the Code Civil. A member of the Conseil des Cinq-Cents, he was chosen by Abbé Sieyès, at Napoleon's request, to be the Second Consul, next to Lebrun and the future Emperor himself. In 1804, Napoléon styled him Archchancellor of the Empire and Duke of Parma.

(SEE ALSO CATALOGUE BACK COVER ILLUSTRATION)

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