Tortoiseshell box, the lid decorated with a miniature depict - Lot 709

Tortoiseshell box, the lid decorated with a miniature depicting Étienne-Charles de Loménie de Brienne. 18th century. H_2.3 cm D_7.2 cm, accident to the glass, chips to the shell. Étienne-Charles de Loménie de Brienne (Paris 1727 - Sens 1794), after being appointed Grand Vicar to the Archbishop of Rouen in 1752 and Bishop of Condom in 1760, became Archbishop of Toulouse in 1763. It was he who had the Canal de Brienne dug between the Garonne and the Canal du Midi. From 1766 to 1769, he was also abbot of Mont Saint-Michel. In 1770, he was elected member of the Académie française. From 1766 to 1780, Brienne was rapporteur for the Commission des réguliers. This commission, set up by Louis XV after the expulsion of the Jesuits to examine the financial situation of ecclesiastical establishments with insufficient resources, ordered the closure of 426 abbeys or priories and the extinction of 9 orders or congregations. The Commission des Réguliers was dissolved on March 19, 1780, and replaced on the same day by the Commission des Unions, this time chaired by the Garde des Sceaux. In 1787, Brienne was appointed president of the Assembly of Notables, and it was in this capacity that he attacked Calonne's fiscal policy. On May 1, 1787, with the support of Queen Marie-Antoinette, he became the principal Minister of State. In his attempt at tax reform, he encountered opposition from parliamentarians; in August 1787, he succeeded in persuading Louis XVI to exile the Parliament to Troyes, which was only recalled to Paris after he had agreed to extend direct taxation to all forms of income. In May 1788, Brienne was forced to resign on condition that a Estates General be convened to remedy the state's disorders. In 1788, Brienne became Archbishop of Sens and Cardinal. After a two-year trip to Italy, he returned to France in 1790, took an oath to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and was forced to resign from the cardinalate. He was arrested in 1794 and died in an enigmatic manner.