three boxes illustrating the veneration of the royal family under the Ancien Régime and the Restoration

The three boxes were not designed at the same time: the first dates from the reign of Louis XVI, the second is more uncertainly dated to between the late^18th and early^19th centuries, and the third was mass-produced during the Restoration, based on an engraving.

The box depicting Louis XVI is of high quality, although it is not made of precious metal. The portrait is delicate, and the sovereign’s eyes are rendered in a particularly benevolent manner. The portrait painted on ivory held at the Louvre Museum unequivocally attributes this portrait to the miniaturist Sicard Louis Marie, known as Sicardi. He received commissions from the royal family from as early as 1772 and became Painter to the King’s Household in 1779. Despite this close association, he adapted to the Revolution and exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1791. He even featured amongst the ten best painters on the list drawn up on 23 Fructidor, Year VIII, by the Minister of the Interior, at the request of the First Consul.

As for the portrait of Marie-Antoinette, set against a blue background in the style of Wedgwood, is a trompe-l’œil designed to imitate the Queen’s biscuit profiles, which were presumably produced by the Sèvres porcelain manufactory (Christie’s auction, 3 November 2015). The shade of the background, however, is not at all the same: the pale blue has been replaced by royal blue, which accounts for the rarity of this box.

The third box is much more common in the sense that the anonymous print depicting Louis XVI, the Dauphin, Marie-Antoinette, Madame Elisabeth and Madame Royale circulated throughout Europe, mainly in the form of copies. As shown by the complete print held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the maker of such boxes simply had to cut out the design to adorn the lid.