Details
Oval box, the cover, sides and base set with black lacquer overlaid with gold strips and hung with laurel garlands, the rims of the cover and the base with chased foliate border, the sides with ovolo border, the cover set with a fixé-sous-verre miniature depicting a harbour scene with family in the foreground after Joseph Vernet
2 3/4 in. (70 mm.)
Provenance
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 17 November 1943, lot 129.
Albert Marber (1900-1960), then by descent.
The Late Albert Marber; Christie's, London, 8-22 September 2022, lot 156.
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Lot Essay

The Louvre Museum holds a near identical snuff-box (OA 2154) gifted by Philippe Lenoir in 1874 also dated 1767/1768 with similar decoration and miniature after Joseph Vernet (S. Grandjean, Catalogue des tabatières, boîtes et étuis des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles du Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1981, no. 119, p. 108).

Jean George, seigneur de Bry, was 'one of the most celebrated of the French gold boxes makers' (C. Truman, The Gilbert Collection of Gold Boxes, Los Angeles, 1991, p. 71). He worked extensively for the French Court, supplying gold boxes for the service of the Menus Plaisirs du Roi as well as boxes for the service of the royal gifts, the Présents du Roi. He gave his name to a particular type of box, the 'georgette', known from contemporary references, although the exact style is no longer clear. Following his death on the 6 June 1765 his widow, Jeanne-Françoise Texier, continued his business with her late husband's only apprentice Pierre-Francois-Mathis de Beaulieu, under the name 'Mme George, Veuve George Beaulieu' and 'Veuve George Beaulieu et Guenet' from 1768, when Beaulieu became a master, until 1778 when the name Beaulieu appears alone. Jeanne-Françoise Texier died in 1786.

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