Jacques Guay
Open-knowledge reference entry
Jacques Guay (1711–1793) was a French gemstone engraver, a protégé of Madame de Pompadour (1721–1764), mistress of King Louis XV of France (1710–74). He was the most eminent gemstone engraver of his time, the official engraver of the king, and produced many cameo and intaglio engravings in semi-precious stones such as onyx, jasper and carnelian. Subjects included classical figures, events in the reign of the king and portraits of members of the court.
Early years
Jacques Guay was born in Marseille in 1711.
Little is known about his family or early life. He came to Paris at an early age and studied drawing with François Boucher. He met the rich financier and collector Pierre Crozat and studied his collection of 1,400 classical engraved gemstones. He decided to study the art of fine stone engraving. His first efforts were successful, but he needed formal training.
He went to Florence in 1742, where he studied the antique stones in the grand duke's collection.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3159045. VIAF identifies the subject as 69098999. The Library of Congress control number is n84087615. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1711, 1793, 1721 and 1764.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jacques Guay” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.