Thomas Compigné, tabletier du roi (active in the...

Thomas Compigné, tabletier du roi (active in the 18th century) View of a hamlet on the banks of a river Stamped and gouached pewter leaf Diameter: 9 cm (chips and missing parts in the sky) Arriving from Italy probably around 1750, Thomas Compigni took the name Compigné. His store at the King David sign on rue Greneta in Paris specialized in the manufacture and sale of boxes, tric-trac, a checkers and chess sets, snuffboxes and other cane handles in gold-encrusted blond tortoiseshell. He is best known as the author of small, particularly precious paintings using a technique he perfected: a sheet of stamped pewter applied to a sheet of cardboard or tortoise shell. The pewter is then decorated with gold, silver, gouache and colored varnish. A great commercial success in the 1760s, these miniatures earned their creator the title of "tabletier privilégié du roi" under Louis XV and Louis XVI. Expert : Pierre-Antoine Martenet