1767 Portrait Medallion of Guy le Gentil Marquis of Paroy, to right. By Jean-Baptiste Nini. Baiardi-Sibille 67, Storelli-XXVI, Villers-17. Terracotta.

163 mm; approximately 10.5 mm at the edge. 487.9 grams. Obverse with incuse signature and date I. NINI F. / 1767. on truncation of the shoulder. GUY LE GENTIL MARQUIS DE PAROY 1767 around, with raised plain border. Made with a suspension hole from the top edge through to the back, as typical. Crisply detailed with smooth texture and lovely uniform light brown patina showing only minor darkening on the highest points. The slightly oblique edges finish in a fine beveling around the reverse. No noteworthy chips are seen, but there is a hairline crack from the edge into the head, passing just right of the M of MARQUIS. Three pasted labels on the back, two of which are from the old auction listing of the A. Ploquin Collection, sold in 1896, where this piece was plated as lot 265. The other is a handwritten note identifying the attribution numbers in the sale as those of A. Villers, who referred to this type as a "magnifique médallion." Le Gentil was born into the French nobility, the son of a landowner in Saint-Dominique. He married into the De Rigaud family which probably put him in close proximity to Nini, as the artist also did portraits of Hiacinthe de Rigaud, a nobleman at the court of Louis XVI and associate of Gabrielle de Polastron (the favorite of Marie Antoinette), and L'Amirande de Rigaud, the marquise of Vaudreuil and wife of the second-highest ranking French Naval officer to participate in the American Revolution - Louis-Philippe de Rigaud de Vaudreuil.

From the Richard Margolis Collection. Earlier from Hôtel Drouot's sale of the A. Ploquin Collection (Paris), May 29-30, 1896, lot 265; Christie's New York sale of the Mrs. John Leslie Collection, January 11, 1994, lot 69A.

Estimate: $1000