90th Auction

2014/11/15

Lot 170

Thomas-Pierre Breton, Paris, 83 x 61 x 46 mm, circa 1760
An important snuff box - this is the second box known to have been produced by the renowned goldsmith Thomas-Pierre Breton
Case: 20k gold, varnish and four coloured gold decoration, maker's mark "TPB" with a pointed arch (Thomas-Pierre Breton), charge and discharge mark Eloy Brichard (1756 - 1762), guild punch mark "V" for the years 1760-1761, later Austrian-Hungarian import mark 1806-1807.
Rectangular box, sides with black lacquer finish and applied four-colour gold decoration, lavish engraving; landscape motifs with temples and ruins framed by red gold tendrils. Engraved fitted rim for opening, flower and volute decoration.
The well known standard work "Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes Of Europe" by A. Kenneth Snowman describes on page 114 the only box known at the time that showed the mark of Thomas-Pierre Breton. The cartouche-shaped box, which is decorated with a classical relief scene and studded with diamonds, is in the Louvre. The box we have here is only the second creation by the famous goldsmith Breton that is presented to the public.
A Louis XV cartouche-shaped gold box by Thomas-Pierre Breton, Paris, 1740-1742 with diamonds and classical reliefs decorating the lid, is in the Louvre (inv. OA 10.878, see S. Grandjean, Catalogue des tabatières, boîtes en or et étuis des XVIIIème et XIXème siècles au musée du Louvre, Paris, 1981, p. 62, no. 50).

estimated
20.00040.000 €
Price realized
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