We shall not repeat what we have said before (p. 72) of this family of clever varnishers : they could not but seize upon a branch of industry so lucrative as the manufacture of boxes, and they marked them with two types essentially different. The most important, if not the most numerous,-is their series of subject-boxes; upon an amber ground of gold colour are laid compositions in the taste of the time; groups of Cupids and of doves surrounded by floral ornamentation, mythological scenes coquettishly framed; or else we have subjects copied, with equal vigour, from the paintings of the great masters, such as those executed in the enamels of which we have already spoken. Many of these paintings are very remarkable, and we often regret our inability to attach to them a name; for it is certain that the Martins did not themselves produce all these works, so various in taste, in style, and in handling. They had, among their assistants, artists of high talent. The second class comprises those who derived their ideas from personal adornmerit; these are the Scotch tartan, the stripes imitating the fabrics of Lyon, all those charming eccentricities which, in their turn, the goldsmiths reproduced by the use of enamels, opaque or translucent. In many examples the boxes arc enriched either with enamels, or applied miniatures.

Etui, in Vernia Martin, with mounting of chased gold. Period of Louis XVI. (Collection of Dr. Piogcy.).