Treasure upon treasure - the Choiseul snuffbox

 

The box measures 8 x 6 x 2.4 centimeters, or approximately 3.15 x 2.36 x 0.88 inches.

The celebrated "Choiseul Snuffbox" was created by the goldsmith Louis Roucel and miniaturist Louis-Nicolas Van Blarenberghe, circa 1770-71. Within its tiny gold framework, the gouache miniatures are set beneath crystal glazing and depict, all save one, interiors of the Hôtel de Choiseul, the duc de Choiseul's Parisian hôtel particulier on the Rue de Richelieu. (Around 1780, from financial necessity, Choiseul had the property subdivided for development and the mansion, constructed in 1704 and formerly known as the Hôtel de Crozat, was later demolished.) 

The rear panel of the snuffbox is the only one to veer from the program, and depicts the Grande Galerie of the Louvre. 

The goldsmith signed his work along the inside edge of the box: Roucel Orfèvre du Roi Paris.

The duc de Choiseul by Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, 1786, the year after his death. Seated at his desk, the duc is presented en déshabillé, his breeches unbuckled.

Choiseul created one of the most important collections of paintings in France at the time, a collection whose contents - mainly Dutch, Flemish, and French pictures, and including eight works by Rembrandt - though sold off after his death, and now spread throughout the great museums and private collections of the world, are still known with considerable accuracy, not least because a good deal of it is depicted in the miniatures of the Hôtel de Choiseul interiors.

The continuation of the Louvre's Grande Galerie is left as a suggestion; the transition is oddly abrupt.

An additional miniature was completed, an image of the summer furnishings of the duc's chambre de parade; its winter furnishings feature in the gouache that graces the lid of the box. This "extra" was later mounted on a nineteenth century snuffbox by Alexandre Leferre.

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Louis-Nicolas van Blarenberghe (15 July 1716, Lille – 1 May 1794, Fontainebleau), French artist. He began his career in the studio of his father, the Flemish battle painter Jacques-Wilhelm van Blarenberghe. By 1769 he was appointed battle painter to the war department in Paris, where he also took on royal commissions for sets of gouaches of major European cities as well as depictions of the battles of Louis XV’s reign. But he was best known for his miniatures, commissioned by the aristocracy and the court at Versailles. He often collaborated with his son, Henri-Joseph van Blarenberghe, and they were especially renowned for their paintings mounted on snuff boxes. During the nineteenth century their works were collected in great numbers by the Rothschild family; there is a selection of their work on public display today at Waddesdon Manor. (as an aside, two of Louis-Nicholas' daughters, Catherine-Henriette and Isabelle, were also chamber maids to the children of the royal family.) 

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Louis Roucel (active circa 1756 – 1784, died 6 March 1787, Puteaux), French goldsmith, one of the most important orfèvres-bijoutiers of his time. He did not become master by Royal prerogative until 1763, though his works had been recorded for some years previously, while living in the goldsmith's quarter on Place Dauphine. Between 1763 and 1776 his name frequently appeared in the records of the Menus-Plaisirs du Roi, including the receipt of 4,800 livres for jewels supplied on the occasion of the marriage of the Dauphin to Marie Antoinette in 1770. 

Presumed portrait of the duc de Choiseul and two companions, by Jacques Wilbaut, circa 1775

Étienne-François, comte de Stainville, duc de Choiseul (28 June 1719, Nancy – 8 May 1785, Paris), French military officer, diplomat and statesman. Between 1758 and 1761, and again from 1766 to 1770, he was Foreign Minister of France. He was successful in his early military career and, in 1750, he married Louise Honorine Crozat, who brought to the marriage her share of the huge fortune of her grandfather Antoine Crozat. She proved a devoted wife, though he would be notoriously unfaithful. His rise to power was in part evinced through the friendship and patronage of Louis XV's mistress, the marquise de Pompadour. During his tenure, he had a profound influence on France's global strategy in his direction of French foreign and military policy; after the king, he was the most powerful man in France.

Described by a contemporary as, "a wonderful mixture of selfishness and charm and recklessness and exquisite taste", in his private life, Choiseul lived extravagantly, amassing, among other things, an outstanding collection of paintings. But in 1770, general anger over his expulsion of the Jesuits three years before, and his haste to involve France in a dispute between England and Spain, caused the war-weary Louis XV to demand his dismissal and order the duke's retirement to his estate at Chanteloup. Choiseul was disappointed that, at the accession of Louis XVI in 1774, he was not recalled to his former position.  He was allowed to return to Paris, though, and he died there eleven years later, leaving huge debts, which his faithful wife scrupulously paid.

In this triple portrait, Choiseul - on the left - is shown in exile at Chanteloup with his mistress Louise-Julie-Constance de Rohan, comtesse de Brionne, and the Abbé Barthélemy, the curator of the king's collection of antiquities and a close friend and adviser to both the duke and the duchess, his wife.

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Jacques Wilbaut (28 March 1729, Château-Porcien - 18 June 1816, Château-Porcien), French painter. In his youth he trained with his uncle, the decorative painter Nicolas Wilbaut. On his uncle's recommendation he was accepted into the Académie Royale in Paris in 1750; he studied there for two years, then worked with his uncle until the latter's death in 1763. Wilbaut mostly painted religious subjects, sometimes landscapes and historically themed works, but his portraits are usually considered his best work.