
Peter Rees
Director, Head of Sales
Sold for £3,187.50 inc. premium
Our European Ceramics specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistDirector, Head of Sales
This unusual subject may well be a unique visual record of a significant episode in the history of the French Revolution involving citizens making the public gesture of giving up their valuable worldly goods to the greater glory of the new regime. The Assembly in Paris started a register of donors' names to encourage patriotic gifts of jewellery and silver or gold tableware. Shoe buckles – which until then had been a means of displaying personal wealth – became incriminating symbols of the old regime and many were sent to the Assembly to raise funds for the cause. The loose shoe buckles required some preparation, and in this painting the sitter has been sewing pairs of silver buckles onto playing cards. Around this time, billets de confiance (promissory notes issued in advance of assignats, the new revolutionary paper money) were often printed on playing cards, so their presence in this work may represent more than just a support for the buckles.
Please note this painting is dated 1790 and not as previously stated.