Master Art

The front and back with engine-turned guilloche red enamel panels, bordered by opalescent pink borders with trailing pink carnations and blue morning glory, opening via a pushbutton at the hinged triangular flap with rectangular applied thumbpiece bearing the motto 'Souvenir', contemporary fabric lining, inscribed 'Fossin joaillier a Paris'.


The goldsmith Gabriel-Raoul Morel was born in Paris in 1764. He first entered his mark in 1797, under the French Revolutionary government and is noted for the range of media in which he worked.


Jean-Baptiste Fossin (1786-1848) was a French silver and goldsmith and jeweller. His firm, bought from his employer Marie-Etienne Nitot, went on to become the famous luxury jewellers Chaumet. Nitot was appointed the Emperor's jeweller in 1802 and designed the coronation crown and the Imperial Sword. After the fall of Napoleon, Nitot and his son sold their business to their foreman, master craftsmen John-Baptiste Fossin. Fossin and his son Jules became noted for romantic jewellery inspired by Italian Renaissance and nature motifs including vine leaves, fruit and hawthorne, and successfully established a noble clientele.


Fossin's son Jules formed a partnership with Jean-Valentin Morel to set up a jewellery business in London. The daughter of Morel's son Prosper married Joseph Chaumet, who inherited the family jewellery business in 1885.

Weight: 60.5g