One of a set of four counter boxes: M.15 & A-Z-1938

Titles

One of a set of four counter boxes

Maker(s)

Maker: Mariaval, Le Jeune

Entities

• Box
• counter box
• gaming token box
• boite à jettons

Categories

• Boxes
• Objets de vertu

Description

Rectangular, ivory box painted in colours on a yellow ground; the lid decorated with a circular emblem of a sleeping Cupid, with a scroll above inscribed 'Le repos me détruit'.

Ivory, stained yellow, engraved and painted in black green and pink, with gilt metal hinges. Rectangular, the base with straight sides. The moulded sides of the lid projecting slightly over the base. The two projecting hinges are pinned to a metal scroll inside the box. The upper surface and interior of the lid and the base are engraved in outline in black and painted on a yellow ground. The top of the lid is decorated with a roundel of Cupid asleep on the ground with his bow and quivers lying in front of him. The scroll above the roundel is inscribed 'Le repos me détruit' (Rest destroys me). The roundel is surrounded by scrolling foliage, flowers, pendant garlands and a shell in green, pink and yellow. At each corner is a swag of green fruit on a pink stippled ground. The inside of the lid is decorated with a bird eating from a flower, surrounded by green, pink and yellow scrolling foliage and flowers within a black border beneath which is the inscription 'Mariaval le Jeune a Rouen fecit'. The base is decorated with a pink, green and yellow spray of three flowers in a white border. The box contains twenty long narrow counters decorated on both sides with a floral design on a magenta ground, and six elongated octagonal counters decorated on both sides with a magenta floral border, and numbered in black '5', '10', '20', '20', '30' or '40'. Each counter is drilled with a small hole near the edge. (one of a set of four boxes with M.14 & A-R-1938, M.16 & A-Y-1938 and M.17 & A-X-1938)

Notes

History note: Sydney Ernest Kennedy (1855-1933); Christie, Manson & Woods, 18-22 March, 1918, Catalogue of the important collection of objects of art, antiquities, armour and arms, formed by S.E. Kennedy, Esq. Who is giving up his residence, 24 Upper Brook Street, W, 5th day, 22 March, lot .

Legal notes

L.D. Cunliffe Bequest, 1937

Place(s) associated

• Rouen ⪼ Normandy ⪼ France

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1937) by Cunliffe, Leonard Daneham

Dating

18th Century, second quarter
Circa 1730 CE - Circa 1750 CE

Note

Mariaval le Jeune, who signed this box, was an engraver on ivory who signed counter boxes in Rouen and Paris. His dates of birth and death are unknown but he was probably active during the second quarter of the 18th century. A box in the Victoria and Albert Museum is decorated with portrait profiles of Louis Ferdinand, Dauphin of France (1729-1765) and his second wife, Marie Josephe de Saxe (1731-1767) who did not marry until 1747. Mariaval's speciality was the production of sets of counter boxes for use in card games, which were coloured to indicate the suits in a pack of cards: red (or a dark pink) for spades, green for diamonds, yellow for clubs and white for hearts. They contained counters of three shapes: long and narrow, elongated octagonal, and round. The octagonal counters were usually numbered from 10 to 50, but two of the Fitzwilliam's also have a 5. The circular counters are missing from all four of the Fitzwilliam's boxes (M.14 & A-R-1938, M.15 A-Z-1938, M.16 A-Y-1938 and M.17 & A-X-1938). The Victoria & Albert Museum has a set of boxes retaining all three shapes of counter (W.21A/1-1985), and, instead of an emblem on the top of the lid, have a dial for recording scores. They boxes may have been used for reversis, an Italian card game which became popular elsewhere in western Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. The object of the game was to avoid taking tricks, or exceptionally to take all, and involved the use of counters. All four boxes in this set have Cupid emblems and mottos on their covers. The emblem of Cupid sleeping in the central medallion was probably copied from no. 12 on pl. XLIX of Nicolas Verrien's 'Receuil d’emblêmes, devises, medailles, et figures hieroglyphiques . . .', Paris , Paris (Claude Jombert) 1724, or an earlier edition of 1696 published by Jean Jombert. The motto is printed on the page following the plate. The first edition had been published in 1685 with the title 'Livre curieux et utile pour les Scavans et Artistes . . .' (Bibliothèque nationale de France, 31565159).

School or Style

Rococo