Blerzy was at the forefront of taste in using paillons to decorate his snuff-boxes. This technique was first developed for Sèvres porcelain by Philippe Parpette and Joseph Coteau in the mid-1770s. These motifs consisting of strips of gold foils punched into metal dies, were supplied by paillonneurs, whose communauté was amalgamated in the goldsmiths guild from 1777, to enamellers and makers of clocks and snuff-boxes. Although the technique had gone out of fashion on porcelain by 1786, Blerzy used it quite successfully for several boxes; for a similar snuff-box dated 1785/1786 see Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Acc. No.267-1878, bequeathed by George Mitchell; another one dated 1786/1787 sold at Christie's London, 3 June 2003, lot 38 previously in the René Fribourg collection and the Ortiz- Patino collection and illustrated in A. K. Snowman, Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Paris, London, 1966, no. 406.