Gold, Lacquer And "piqué d'Or" Snuffbox By Louis Roucel, Paris, 1775-1776

Octagonal snuffbox gold-mounted "à cage", decorated with red lacquer, the lid and the reverse decorated with an octagonal cartouche lacquered in black and dotted with gold decorated with birds, flowered rocks, squirrel and basket of flowers, in a gold entourage lined with caps, the framing borders chiseled with a frieze of flowers and oval pearls on a sandblasted background.
Slight cracks at the red lacquer, stains at the black lacquer.
Inside the lid engraved later: “This box a present from / Doctor Reynolds to Doctor Ainslie / attendant Physicians on Geo(rge). III / was given by the latter / who died at Grizedale near Ulverstone 26 oct(obe)r 1834 / to Bernard Gilpin. Ch. / for professional services”.
Paris, 1775-1776.
Goldsmith: Louis Roucel (active c. 1756-1787).
H. 2,4 x W. 8 x D. 6 cm. Gross weight: 140,5 g.

Provenance
- Presented by Dr. Henry Revell Reynolds (1745–1811) to Dr. Henry Ainslie (1760–1834), attendant physicians on George III (1760-1820)
- Given by Dr. Henry Ainslie to John Bernard Gilpin (1790–1861)
- Christie's London, December 18, 1973, lot 152
- French private collection

Related works
- The inventory of Marie-Josèphe de Saxe, Dauphine of France, published by G. Bapst (1883, p. 139) mentions among the "Boëtes de lacq" of this princess who died in 1767, a rectangular red lacquer snuff box with birds in a dive close to this box.
- A snuffbox with comparable decoration piqué on black lacquer, by Jean-Marie Tiron, Paris, 1761-1763, is kept at the Louvre Museum (inv. OA 7636), illustrated on the cover of the catalog "Les snuffboxes of the Louvre museum", editions of the Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris, 1981 (cat. 193) (ill. 1).
- A snuffbox with a comparable decor piqué on tortoiseshell, by Jean Ducrollay, Paris, 1754-1755, is kept at the Metropolitan Museum in New York (inv. 1976.155.16) (ill. 2).
- A comparable snuffbox with green enamel decoration, by Louis Roucel, Paris, 1767-1768, is in the Wallace Collection (inv. G41) (ill. 3).