Jean-Antoine Belleteste

 

Jean-Antoine Belleteste (1731-01.05.1811) Antoine Belleteste and Louis Charles-Antoine Belleteste (1787-1832) Louis Charles-Vincent Belletete Louis Augustin-Gregoire Belletete, Jaque Belleteste and Nicolas Henri Belleteste (1778-1808) came from a famous Dieppe family of carvers. They worked in the Grand Rue in Dieppe, at times also in Paris. While the other microcarvers of their time produced the image structure from individual components with a background by flocking, J.-A. Belleteste, like his son and grandson, belongs to the Diepper carvers who produced the microscopically carved miniature plaquettes, if possible from a piece of ivory in high relief, and then applied them to a glass on a dark background.

The box illustrated shows the Temple de I' Amour from the former collection of Alphonse Maze-Senier (Collection Aldph. Maze-Senier No 721 offered in March 1886 in Paris by Drouot). Depicted is an antique scene with three putti, a canopy, 2 persons, two doves, ruins and trees. The spacing between the columns of the canopy is as fine as the point of a needle. The artwork was placed in a box with a gold rim and cover glass. Spirel Blondel mentions on p. 5 that this box offers what the ivory carving art of Dieppe and Paris produced most gracefully and delicately.