i6 
Land & Water 
April II, igi8 
The Petitot SnufF-Box : By G. C. Williamson 
Miniatures on the Top (Left) and Bottom (Right) 
ONE of the chief treasures that belonged to the 
late Mr. Alfred de Rothschild was the famous 
gold snuff-box decorated by Petitot. Few things 
that the great collector valued were more 
highly esteemed than this precious box, which 
has now, with other famous jewels, passed into the possession 
of the Countess of Carnarvon, who has succeeded to the house 
in Seamore Place, with all its valuable contents. 
The gold box came 
from the collection of the 
Marquis de la Reigni^re, 
and was purchased by 
Mr. de Rothschild many 
years ago at a very high 
price, included in the 
bargain being an import- 
ant document, always 
preserved in the box, 
setting forth the names 
of the persons depicted 
on it. It was adorned 
with no less than four- 
teen portraits in enamel, 
executed with marvellous 
fidelit}'^ and exquisite 
detail. On the top were 
three portraits: La 
Duchesse de la Vallifere, 
the mistress of Louis 
XIV., who was neglected 
for Mme. de Montespan, 
and retired to a convent 
Jean Petftot 
From a Portrait in the Collection of the 
Earl of Dartrey 
and died in 1710, in the centre ; Mme. de Maintenon, who in 
her turn ousted Montespan, on the right ; and La Duchesse 
de Fontanges, Marie Angehque de Scoraille, another of the 
king's favourite ladies, on the left. 
On the bottom of the box were three more portraits. In 
the centre, the famous niece of Cardinal Mazarin, Hortensia 
de Mancini, who fled to England, and died in Chelsea in 1690 ; 
the Marquige de Montespan, who succeeded Louise de la 
Vallifere in the king's affection, on the left ; and, on the right, 
the famous beauty, Mile. Dupre, "La Belle Jardiniere de 
Meudon." 
On the front of the box Come three more : The centre is 
a portrait of La Duchesse de Brissac, on the right is the 
daughter of the Marquise de Sevigny, La Comtesse de Coignj', 
and on the left Mile, de Blois, Princesse de Conti. 
The back has yet three more portraits : Madame de 
Montespan's niece, known as La Duchesse, is on the right ; 
Henriette de Coligny, La Comtesse de la Sure, on the left ; 
and in the centre La Duchesse de Nevers ; while right and 
left of the box are single portraits, the dissolute French 
beauty, Ninon de I'Enclos being on the right and one of the 
same frail sisterhood, who cannot be identified with cer- 
tainty, on the left. 
It will be seen, therefore, that this wonderful box is a 
treasure home of portraiture of the famous beauties of the 
Court of Louis XIV., all alike painted by the greatest portrait 
painter in enamel that the world has ever seen. We illus- 
trate the top and bottom, the front, the back, and the two 
sides of the box, and also a signed portrait of Petitot, which 
comes from Lord Dartrey's collection. 
So much for the portraits, of which our illustrations give 
ample evidence as to beauty and charm, save that they lack 
the exquisite colour of the originals ; but what about the 
famous painter whose chefs d'auvre they are ? 
Jean Petitot was a Genevan Huguenot, a man who belonged 
to the French Reformed Protestant religion, and came of 
the same group as the potter Palissy, the ebeniste Boulle, 
the tapestry-worker Gobelin, the architect Salomon de 
Brosses, the painter Jean Cousin, the sculptor Jean Goujon, 
and the enameUer Limousin, as well as many other men 
who have been noted in literature and art, including Beza, 
Calvin and Zwingli. 
His family came originally from Burgundy. His grand- 
father was a medical man, his father a wood-carver ; and 
the Petitots fled from France to Switzerland on account of 
religious difficulties, as did the Arlauds, the Bordiers, the 
Huaulds, and the Thorons — all artists of repute. Young 
Jean Petitot, with whom we have to deal, was born in 1607, 
and apprenticed to the jeweller-goldsmith Pierre Bordier, 
some of whose descendants still reside in Geneva. His 
master was not very much older than Petitot himself, and 
the two men, master and pupil, formed a close attachment, 
and becoming dissatisfied with the progress of their work, 
determined to learn more about enamelling and to do finer 
portraits. For a while, in Paris, they were engaged in the 
workshop of Jean Toutin, the king's jeweller, and when 
they left him, so pleased was he with their industry that he 
gave them a letter of introduction to Turquet de Mayerne, 
the celebrated physician, who was the confidential adviser 
to Charles the First. This man, when they came to England, 
gladly received Toutin's two promising assistants, made 
them free of his own workshop, where he was investigating 
the secrets of enamel work and chemistry, and eventually 
introduced them to the king. Charles was delighted with 
their skill, and Petitot executed portraits not only for the 
king, but for many of the notable persons about the Court, 
his greatest work at this time — say, in 1642 — being perhaps 
his portrait of Rachel de Ruvigny, Countess of Southamp- 
ton, the copy of the painting, by Vandyck, now to be seen, 
although damaged, at Chatsworth. 
When the king was beheaded, and the Royal Household 
fled to Paris, Petitot went with them. His friend Bordier 
remained in England, and he it was who was employed by 
the Commonwealth Government to execute the Naseby 
jewel, which now belongs to Lord Hastings. Petitot found 
in Paris a cousin of his friend, one Jacques Bordier, however, 
entered into partnership with him, and became the most 
famous and popular worker in enamel in the city. Then it 
was that he was employed by Louis XIV., and to this period 
of his life belongs the famous box to which allusion is made 
in this article. 
The drawing of the portraits seems to have been done by 
Petitot, and a few of his actual signed sketches survive ; 
but in the execution of the enamel work the skill of his 
partner also came into play, and portraits usually ascribed 
to Petitot should more justly be attributed to the joint 
efforts of the two men. 
Petitot married in 165 1, and his wife was Marguerite Cuper, 
whose sister Anne Madeleine had in the previous year 
espoused his friend and partner, who now became also his 
brother-in-law. He had seventeen children, and has left 
behind him, now carefully preserved in Bordeaux, a wonderful 
