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Joseph-Etienne Blerzy

( 1735 - 1821 )

Joseph-Etienne Blerzy was born on 8 June 1735 and apprenticed on 27 February 1750 to François-Joachim Aubert, a goldsmith who specialised in mounting tortoiseshell and lacquer snuff boxes. Aubert also acted as sponsor in 1768 when Blerzy became master, from the pont au Change. His shop, under the sign of the ‘ville de Leipzig’, remained on the bridge until 1785 when all the houses were pulled down to widen the road. He then moved to the rue de la Monnaie 41, and sometime before 1798 to the rue du Coq St. Honoré where he is recorded in the Almanach de Commerce in 1806 with Etienne-Lucien Blerzy. In 1808, Etienne-Lucien’s widow (Victoire Boisot) took over the business so presumably by that date Joseph-Etienne had retired after his long career as one of the most prolific and technically accomplished late eighteenth-century Parisian gold box makers. He died on 23 April 1821.