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Design
Unknown - Enlarge image
Design
- Place of origin:
Paris, France (made)
- Date:
ca. 1760 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Pen and ink and wash on paper
- Credit Line:
Purchased with the assistance of Wartski Limited
- Museum number:
E.897:11-1988
- Gallery location:
Prints & Drawings Study Room, level E, case CUP, shelf 5, box A
Design for a fob chain, a small ornament or medallion suspended from a watch sometimes including a short chain as in this design. This fob chain is intended to be made in enamelled gold. The design is by an anonymous designer and was made in about 1760 and was possibly drawn for an elite client from the Court of Louis XV, King of France, from 1715 to 1774, at Versailles, Paris.
It is from an album of designs which date from about 1735-1820 and include snuffboxes, scent holders, watches and watch cases, spoons, fans and fan mounts, small swords, and chatelaines (ornamental chains, pins, or clasps usually worn at a woman's waist, to which trinkets, keys, purses, or other articles are attached). The album is bound in red morocco and the boards are stamped in gilt with the arms, now partly erased, of a member of the Bourbon family, probably Louis-Henri, Prince of Condé (1692-1740).
There is a close relationship between the contents of the album and known work by three Parisian goldsmiths, Jean Ducrollay (1710-1787), Pierre- François Drais (active 1761-1788), and Charles Ouizille (1744-1830) whose names appear on the first page of the album. This suggests that all the designs emanate from their workshops. Drais worked for the Court at Versailles as jeweller to both King Louis XV and Louis XVI. Ouizille worked in this capacity for Louis XVI. Most of the material dates from the period 1755-90.
