A gold, enamel and Japanese lacquer snuff box, Adrien-Jean-Maximilien Vachette, Paris, 1787/1788

Baron Max von Goldschmidt-Rothschild collection;

Returned in 1949;

Rosenberg and Steibel New York, 13-14 April, 1950, lot 304;

Neumann Collection;

Sotheby's Monaco, Collections du Baron de Redé et

Baron Guy de Rothschild provenant de l’Hôtel Lambert,

25 May 1975, lot 31;

Sotheby's Geneva, 18 and 19 November 1996, lot 285 (The Property of a Lady).

M. K. Wagner et K. Weiler, Die Sammlung von Maximilian von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, Cologne, 2023, pp. 520-521, G.R.425

The present lot is typical of Vachette’s clever appropriation of earlier materials, mounted in a simple but elegant style. The box is made distinctive by the concave panels and the slightly curving line of the gold mount on both lid and base.

Adrien-Jean-Maximilien Vachette was a prolific and inimitably varied gold box maker, combining excellence of quality with inventive creativity.

Born at Cauffrey in the Oise in 1753, he was the 15th and last child of Pierre Vachette, a tax collector, and his wife Marie-Ann Pillon. After eight years of apprentissage, he became master under the auspices of Pierre-François Drais. Unsurprisingly for a purveyor of luxury goods, he disappeared during the confused years of the 'Reign of Terror' and Consulate, re-emerging in the records in 1805 at 3 quai de l’Horloge and 45 quai du Nord in 1806. He continued to produce a large number of boxes, many in association with Charles Ouizille, Nitot and Montauban. The variety of Vachette’s work can be best seen in the collections of the Louvre (see Grandjean, 200-216 and 352-367).