Wax case in yellow gold 750°/°° enameled and paved with rose - Lot 78

Wax case in yellow gold 750°/°° enameled and paved with rose-cut diamonds, by Pierre-François-Mathis de BEAULIEU. Paris, 1776-1777. The wedding coat of arms of Kazimierz Jakub Poniatowski (Ciolek clan) (1721-1800) and Apolonia Ustrzycka (Przestrzal clan) (1736-1814), married January 21, 1751. Of oval cross-section, gray enameled on a squared ground, outlined with blue and white enameled fillets, chased with garlands set with rose-cut diamonds on an amati ground, the neck of the case numbered 391; the top of the stopper adorned with a flower paved with rose-cut diamonds on an amati ground. The plate is engraved with a coat of arms consisting of two coats of arms joined under a marquis's crown. Restoration to the tip of the base, two small rose-cut diamonds and a few missing rivets. Height: 120 mm - Width: 17 mm - Length: 20 mm. Gross weight: 71.8 g. Pierre-François-Mathis de Beaulieu, received in 1768. Hallmarks: - M.O. Pierre-François-Mathis de Beaulieu: a crowned fleur-de-lys, two grains, PMB, a star. - Common house: N couronné, Paris, from July 13, 1776 to August 13, 1777. - Charge (gold and small silver items): le chiffre de Paris, Paris, November 18, 1774 to July 13, 1780. - Discharge (gold and small silver items): Tête de singe, Paris, from November 18, 1774 to July 13, 1780. - Countermark: une bonne foi. Paris, July 13 to 1780 to September 1782. - ET hallmark (struck twice): imported, from 1864. Pierre-François Mathis de BEAULIEU was apprenticed to silversmith Jean George in 1752. He became a master on July 13, 1768, under the tutelage of Ange-Joseph Aubert, and set up store at the Observatoire, on the Quai des Orfèvres, where he remained until the French Revolution. He formed a partnership and married Jeanne-Françoise Texier, the widow of Jean George, his former master. The partners delivered gold jewelry for Madame du Barry, including a snuffbox and a souvenir, at a cost of no less than 7,400 livres. Despite the success of his enterprise, the Affiches de Paris announced the sale of the jewelry business of Sieur George Beaulieu [sic], which took place at the Hôtel de Bullion on May 15, 1783 and the following days. Beaulieu was last mentioned in 1791 on the list of Parisian master goldsmiths (1). The Louvre owns four boxes made by this silversmith between 1768 and 1781 (2), two are in the Wallace Collection in London (3), two are in the Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor (4) and a box bearing the portrait of Marie-Antoinette by François Dumont (1751-1831) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art (5). Finally, of the two boxes in the collections of New York's Metropolitan Museum, one (6), dated like this case to 1776, features the same elegant gray enameled squared background, which seems to be typical of his creations. (1) Serge Grandjean, Catalogue des tabatières, boîtes et étuis des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles du musée du Louvre, Paris, RMN, 1981, p. 44-45. (2) Inv. OA 2161; OA 6831; OA 2162; OA 7680, see Grandjean, ibid, cat. 18-21, p. 44-47. (3) Inv. G 5 and G 52. (4) Serge Grandjean, Kirsten Aschengreen Piacenti et all, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor. Gold Boxes and Miniatures of the Eighteenth Century, Fribourg, Office du Livre, 1975, cat. 137 and 140. (5) given by Mr Edward B. Greene 1957.408. (6) Inv. 17.190.1179.I