97th Auction

2018/5/12

Lot 217

Master's mark "J" and "T" (André und Jean-Louis Jordan & Francois-Claude Theremin), Berlin / attributed to Van Blarenberghe, punched flange number 109, 81 x 59 x 28 mm, 139 g, circa 1780
A very fine German gold enamel snuff box with gouache miniature painting "Harbour Scene with Lighthouse"
Case: gold, case maker's mark: crowned "J" and crowned "T", imitating charge mark Jean-Jaques Prévost, two later Parisian punch marks for gold 1838-1846, rim with number 109.
Oval box, hinged lid with framed oval gouache miniature painting in the centre: harbour scene with staffage figures, sailing boats and a lighthouse in the background. Sides and base with enamel panels showing with waterside scenes and sailing boats in sepia en grisaille painting. Gold mountings with applied translucent green and red enamel leaves and flowers and opalescent enamel dots. The sides with lesenes are similarly decorated.
Francois-Claude Theremin
Theremin was the son-in-law of Jean-Guillaume-Georges Krüger. Together with the brothers André and Jean-Louis Jordan he founded an important manufactory for ornaments and jewellery in Berlin, where they employed craftspeople from Paris and Geneva. Around 1794 Theremin went into partnership with his brother Pierre, who had a workshop in St. Petersburg. They decorated their gold boxes with neoclassical Geneva style enamelling and these boxes were a great success. The brothers possibly marked their products with the initials "JT".
Source: José de Los Llanos, Christiane Grégoire, "Boites en or et objects de vertu au Musée Cognacq-Jay", Paris 2011, p. 536.
Van Blarenberghe was the name of a dynasty of painters, originally from French Flanders (Lille) but some of the most famous descendants also lived in Paris, France.
Louis-Nicolas had a son who was also a painter and with whom he often collaborated: Henri-Joseph van Blarenberghe (24 November 1750 – 1 December 1826). Together with his father, they stayed at the Palace of Versailles, where they worked as miniaturists for the high society of their day. They were especially famous for their paintings on snuff boxes. Louis-Nicolas also worked as official campaign painter of the French court, following the French army as a war reporter. Two of his daughters, Catherine-Henriette and Isabelle, were chamber maids to the children of the French kings. The works of Louis-Nicolas and Henri-Joseph were collected in profusion in the 19th century by the Rothschild family. There is a collection of their work on public display at Waddesdon Manor. An enormous collection of Blarenberghe art was sold in the Mentmore Towers sale of 1977.
Henri-Joseph painted, besides the miniatures, mainly panoramic paintings, often in gouache. The subjects were, as with his father, often military, and also included the French revolution. He was the drawing teacher of the French princes, and founder and first conservator of the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blarenberghe, as of 09/27/2013

estimated
50.00070.000 €
Price realized
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