A pair of circular miniatures on ivory, both inscribed : Bailly 1700 and Bailly 1705, both was purchased in the sale of Viennese Dorotheum auction house from the collection Josef Reitner , Vienna with attribution to French miniature painter and engraver Nicolas Bailly (1659- Paris - 1736). Nicolas Bailly, the ´Keeper of the King´s Paintings´, was a painter of miniatures and landscapes, as well as an etcher. From his own drawings he engraved a collection of 17 views of the area around Paris, entitled Book of Various Views of the Environs of Paris.Bailly was the son of the miniaturist Jacques Bailly and grandfather of Jean -Sylvain Bailly, the first Mayor of Paris during the Revolution , who died on the scaffold in 1793.

Literature: Benezit Dictionary of Artists; Oxford Art Online.

Inscription:  both signed and dated: Bailly 1700 and Bailly 1705, on the back of covers - old collector´s labels with the artist´s attribution.

Technique: both gouaches on ivory, old frames.

Measurements: each diameter 3 1/8" (8 cm), framed w 7 3/4" x h 7 3/4" (19,5 x 19,5 cm).

Condition: in very good condition.