Snuffbox with An Allegory of Geography

Joseph-Étienne Blerzy received his mastership in 1768 after an apprenticeship with François-Joachim Aubert, a goldsmith whose work is unknown. Blerzy’s success can be gauged by the survival of an exceptionally large body of work, more than three dozen boxes, all but one dating prior to the French Revolution and most in the format represented here. Blerzy was still working in 1806 but was not listed among active Parisian goldsmiths three years later. The enameled simulation of dendritic, or moss, agate was said in 1750 to have been recently perfected by the unidentified miniaturist Philippe,(1) but the thirteen boxes known to the present author that are decorated in this manner all date between 1776 and 1781.(2) Blerzy himself executed four of them between 1776 and 1778.

Catalogue entry from Claire Le Corbeiller. The Robert Collection. Decorative Arts, Volume XV. Wolfram Koeppe, et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2012, pp. 159-60.

NOTES:
1. Grandjean, Serge. Catalogue des tabatieres, boîtes et étuis des XVIIIe et XIXe siecles du Musée du Louvre. Paris, 1981, p. 59, indirectly quoting from the Affiches de Paris, 29 June 1750.
2. Grandjean 1981, nos. 146, 147, and sale, Christie’s, London, 30 June 1982, lot 33 (all 1776 – 77, by Charles Le Bastier); the present work and sale, Sotheby’s, London, 14 October 1963, lot 303 (1777 – 78, both by Blerzy); Metropolitan Museum, 17.190.1128 and 17.190.1130; sale, Sotheby’s, London, 13 July 1964, lot 216; sale, Christie’s, Geneva, 14 November 1972, lot 107; Norton, Richard, and Martin Norton. A History of Gold Snuff Boxes. London, 1938, pl. 33a; sale, Christie’s, London, 26 June 1974, lot 2 (all 1778 – 79, by, respectively, J. J. Barriere, Blerzy [two], Le Bastier [two], Jean Delobel [or Jean Decle]); Habsburg-Lothringen, Geza von. Gold Boxes from the Collection of Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. [United States], 1983, no. 51 (1779 – 80, Barriere); Metropolitan Museum, 48.187.474 (1781, Barthélemy Pillieux[?]).

Marking: Marks:(1)
Inside the base and the front wall:
1. Maker’s mark of Joseph-Étienne Blerzy, a crowned fleur-de-lis, two grains de remède, jeb, device a level(2)
2. The word Paris in cipher, the charge mark for gold and small silver, Paris 1774 – 80(3)
3. A crowned italic O, the warden’s mark for gold and small
silver, Paris, 1777 – 80(4)

On the right bezel:
4. A monkey’s head, the discharge mark for gold and small silver, Paris 1774 – 80(5)
On the left bezel:
5. An eagle displayed, the inventory mark of the Russian Imperial Collections(6)
6. The numbers 665 and 9 [or 6](7)

NOTES:
1. Certain marks have been interpreted by Charles Truman.
2. Nocq, Henry. Le poinçon de Paris: Répertoire des maîtresorfèvres de la juridiction de Paris depuis le Moyen-Âge jusqu’à la fin du XVIIIe siècle. 5 vols. Paris, 1926 – 31, vol. 1, pp. 137 – 38.
3. Bimbenet-Privat, Michèle, and Gabriel de Fontaines. La datation de l’orfèvrerie parisienne sous l’Ancien Régime: Poinçons de jurande et poinçons de la Marque, 1507 – 1792. Paris, 1995, no. 487.
4. Ibid., no. 500.
5. Ibid., no. 489.
6. Solodkoff, Alexander von. Russian Gold and Silverwork, Seventeenth –Nineteenth Century. New York, 1981, pp. 163-64. [Translation of Russische Goldschmiedekunst, 17. – 19. Jahrhundert: Silber, Email, Niello, Golddosen, Schmuck. Munich, 1981.]
7. According to Charles Truman, the absence of marks inside the lid suggests that the lining inside the cover is a replacement. This alteration probably occurred when the enamel plaque on the cover was set into the box, perhaps taking the place of a miniature of a member of the French or Russian courts.

Russian Imperial Collections.