Round box in gold (750 thousandths) with a guilloché backgro - Lot 48

Round box in gold (750 thousandths) with a guilloché background strewn with dots, friezes of pearled ribbons around the edges, the lid decorated with an inlaid oval plaque in herborized jasper, engraved around the rim with two verses in Latin from an Ode by Horace to Virgil, dedicated: "Multis illa bonis flebilis occidit / CAROL. M. B. R. / Nulli flebilior quam mihi Hor / P. Fr. LE COURAYER" ("this woman is dead, worthy of being mourned by many good people, but more worthy of being mourned by no one than by me"). Paris, 1783-1784. Master gilder : Ambroise-Grégoire Rétoré (insculpe in 1778). H. 2.3 x L. 7.6 cm. Gross weight: 143.0 g. History The strange inscription on the lid seems to refer to Pierre-François Le Courayer (1681-1776), theologian and doctor of Oxford University, who paid tribute to his patron, Queen Caroline of Ansbach (1683-1737), by dedicating to her his translation of Paolo Sarpi's Histoire du Conseil de Trente from Italian to French; in exchange, she offered him an annual pension of 200 pounds. He died in 1776 and is buried in the cloister of Westminster Abbey, London.