PAR JEAN-FRANÇOIS GARAND, PARIS, 1766-1767

Rectangulaire à pans coupés, appliquée de panneaux en écaille de tortue décorés en piqué et clouté de grandes branches fleuries agrémentées d'un ruban stylisé, les bords et les montants verticaux ciselés d'une frise de lierre sur fond sablé, sur le couvercle et la base une frise de filets enrubannés, poinçons dans le couvercle, la base et le bord intérieur: charge, lettre-date (c) et maître-orfèvre; sur la gorge: décharge de 1762-1768, contremarque de 1768-1774, reconnaissance et contremarque de 1780-1782
L.: 7,5 cm. (2 7/8 in.)
Poids brut: 139 gr. (4 oz. 9 dwt.)

Vente Sotheby's, Olympia Londres, 21 novembre 2002, lot 44.

A LOUIS XV GOLD-MOUNTED TORTOISESHELL PIQUE SNUFF-BOX
BY JEAN-FRANCOIS GARAND, PARIS, 1766-1767
Rectangular with cut corners, the gold cagework chased with leafy swags on a sable ground within narrow bands of ribbon-bound reeding, enclosing eight tortoiseshell panels, each finely inlaid in pique point et cloute with swirling motifs combining ribbons and flowers, marked in cover, base and inside of rim: charge, date-lettre (c) and maker; on flange: decharge of 1762-1768, contremarque of 1768-1774, reconnaissance and contremarque of 1780-1782

Jean-François Garand (? - 1778) was apprenticed from 1753 with Léopold Artaut, then in 1740 with Richard Jarry. He entered his mark in 1748 and took over the widow of Jean-François Ravechet, Marie-Francoise Lecoq's workshop on the Pont Notre-Dame, whom he then married.
Henry Nocq refers in Le Poinçon de Paris (1926, p. 214) to an archive document (Y 11091) which shows that his wife, Marie-Francoise Lecoq, sent in 1766 to the Marquis de Durfot Civrac an invoice for the supply of tortoiseshell snuff-boxes with gold mounts. Being the date of our snuff-box, it is possible that the invoice could refer to our snuff box.
Garand was also a retailer and put his signature on boxes made by his fellow goldsmiths including Formey, Le Bastier and Robert. He was one of the suppliers of jewelry to the Menus-Plaisirs du Roi, and is mentioned in the archives of the Presents of the King in 1757 for the delivery of jewelry to the Marquis de l'Hôpital, ambassador to the Russian Imperial Court, to be presented to the Empress. Garand was elected officer of his Guild in 1772 and became treasurer the following year. He died in Passy, near Paris, in 1778.