Royal Jubilees
Milestone years have been celebrated in long reigns since George III
EDMÉ-CHARLES DE LIOUX DE SAVIGNAC (ACTIVE 1760-89)
Snuff box
1766-67RCIN 8968
Oval gold box and enamel box, the lid mounted with a glazed gouache miniature of a sporting contest on the Tiber, with foliate and floral gold borders, thumbpiece and swags, the green enamel ground with fine filigree gold and silver decoration.
The top of this box is inset with a painted miniature, signed by De Savignac, after Joseph Vernet's painting Fête sur le Tibre à Rome (London, National Gallery) which was commissioned by the Marquis de Villette in 1749 and later engraved by Jacques Duret. Edmé-Charles de Lioux de Savignac (fl.1760-89) lived in the rue Saint-Sauveur, Paris, between 1764 and 1784. He painted many scenes after Joseph Vernet, in the manner of the Van Blarenberghe family of miniaturists. In 1766 he successfully sought permission from the Marquis de Marigny, brother of Madame de Pompadour, to make miniature copies of Vernet's series Les Ports de France, painted for Louis XV between 1753 and 1765.
The early history of the box is not known, but a note in Queen Mary's hand, inside the box, records that it was a Silver Jubilee gift to King George V and Queen Mary from Mr and Mrs James A. de Rothschild in 1935. James A. de Rothschild (1878-1957), like King George V and Queen Mary, came from a family of renowned collectors of gold boxes. This box may have passed to him in 1922 when he inherited Waddesdon Manor from his great-aunt Miss Alice de Rothschild (1847-1922). Waddesdon's creator Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (1839-98) and his sister Alice assembled an outstanding collection of eighteenth-century boxes, including a number of important works by Lioux de Savignac and the Van Blarenberghes. A closely related miniature, also after Vernet's Fête sur le Tibre à Rome, signed v Blarenberghe 1754, was inherited by Baron Ferdinand from his father Anselm (1803-98). James also inherited the remarkable collection of boxes formed in Paris by his father Edmond de Rothschild (1845-1934), later confiscated by the Nazis but now also at Waddesdon.
Charge and discharge marks of the fermier-général Jean-Jacques Prévost, Paris, 22 November 1762 - 22 December 1768; warden's mark for Paris 12 July 1766 - 13 July 1767; and maker's mark LV with a mallet (unidentified); miniature signed DE SAVIGNAC
Catalogue entry from Royal Treasures, A Golden Jubilee Celebration, London 2002
The top of this box is inset with a painted miniature, signed by De Savignac, after Joseph Vernet's painting Fête sur le Tibre à Rome (London, National Gallery) which was commissioned by the Marquis de Villette in 1749 and later engraved by Jacques Duret. Edmé-Charles de Lioux de Savignac (fl.1760-89) lived in the rue Saint-Sauveur, Paris, between 1764 and 1784. He painted many scenes after Joseph Vernet, in the manner of the Van Blarenberghe family of miniaturists. In 1766 he successfully sought permission from the Marquis de Marigny, brother of Madame de Pompadour, to make miniature copies of Vernet's series Les Ports de France, painted for Louis XV between 1753 and 1765.
The early history of the box is not known, but a note in Queen Mary's hand, inside the box, records that it was a Silver Jubilee gift to King George V and Queen Mary from Mr and Mrs James A. de Rothschild in 1935. James A. de Rothschild (1878-1957), like King George V and Queen Mary, came from a family of renowned collectors of gold boxes. This box may have passed to him in 1922 when he inherited Waddesdon Manor from his great-aunt Miss Alice de Rothschild (1847-1922). Waddesdon's creator Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (1839-98) and his sister Alice assembled an outstanding collection of eighteenth-century boxes, including a number of important works by Lioux de Savignac and the Van Blarenberghes. A closely related miniature, also after Vernet's Fête sur le Tibre à Rome, signed v Blarenberghe 1754, was inherited by Baron Ferdinand from his father Anselm (1803-98). James also inherited the remarkable collection of boxes formed in Paris by his father Edmond de Rothschild (1845-1934), later confiscated by the Nazis but now also at Waddesdon.
Charge and discharge marks of the fermier-général Jean-Jacques Prévost, Paris, 22 November 1762 - 22 December 1768; warden's mark for Paris 12 July 1766 - 13 July 1767; and maker's mark LV with a mallet (unidentified); miniature signed DE SAVIGNAC
Catalogue entry from Royal Treasures, A Golden Jubilee Celebration, London 2002
