Date: France, Paris, 1756-1762
An exceptional four-colour gold snuff box from the Master Jean Frémin (Master in Paris since 1738)
Assay and master´s mark
Á quatre-couleurs, white, red and yellow gold.
Weight: 220 gram
Measurement: 4 cm (high), 8.7 cm (wide), 7 cm (deep)
Provenance:
In the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY there are six gold snuff boxes of Jean Fremin, one with an identical décor.
Literature:
Compare Vgl. Tardy, S. 128. Beuque, Nr. 1222. Snowman, Eighteenth-Century gold boxes of Europe, Tafel 116a, Abb. 270, o. L.; Hierzu Abb, 277, o. R.; Metropolitan Museum of Art, Inventar-Nr. 1975.1.1537.
Jean Frémin (fl. 1738 – before 1783) was a prominent figure among Parisian goldsmiths: one of a dynasty of goldsmiths himself, he was related by marriage to the Drais and Choconain Delaunay families. Furthermore, he was first elected warden of the Goldsmiths’ guild in 1761, taking various offices before becoming prime warden in 1779. Judging by the inventory drawn up on his death in 1786 by commissaire Leblond his circumstances were comfortable – le mobilier bourgeois paraît confortable et abondant, mais pas d’objets particulièrement remarquable – a testimony to the solid, excellently-constructed boxes enlivened by touches of endearing originality, such as the charming engraved ribbon borders on the present box, for which he is justly famed. For further biographical details, see Henri Nocq, Le poinçon de Paris, reprint Paris, 1968, vol. II, p. 194.