Snuffbox 1754-55 Jean Ducrollay The shaped black panels that decorate the top, bottom, and sides of this box were intended to imitate Japanese lacquer, which was very much in fashion in France throughout the eighteenth century. The six panels are in fact made of tortoiseshell decorated in a technique known as piqué, in which extremely thin gold and silver wire is inlaid in the shell. The resulting compositions provide a close approximation of black-and-gold Japanese lacquer. These panels with piqué decoration are set into rectangular panels made of imitation red lacquer.Because of the high cost of importing Japanese lacquer and the length of time it took the lacquer to reach France there was considerable impetus to develop a French alternative to Asian lacquers. In 1730 a patent was given to Guillaume Martin (d. 1749). Martin, his brothers, and eventually other members of his family were so successful in producing a French version of Asian lacquer that the term vernis Martin became