Fine Antique French Portrait Miniature, c.1700s, Gentleman in Powdered Wig evening purse laurel garland draped from bow

laurel garland draped from bow & ribbon ties and encircling the base

Antique shell carnet bal

The silversmith mark is for Stephane Prudhomme

I've owned this one for decades

We normally find these all separately and only on a very rare occasion are the sets still together

Fine Antique French Portrait Miniature, c.1700s, Gentleman in Powdered Wig evening purse laurel garland draped from bowA tiny gem, perhaps all that remains to mark a life of this very distinguished gentleman who looks a great deal like French King Louis XVI, don't you agree? Fashioned for his time, c. 1760 1780s, he wears the long powdered wig of a avacate (attorney or judge) or simply a courtier in the time of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The painting is tiny, elegant, and done on paper rather than the thin natural wafer of most. It just feels like a quick little