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Lot Essay
The C couronné poinçon was a tax mark applied to alloys containing copper, between March 1745 and February 1749.
The gilt-bronze sabots which adorn this rich bureau plat can be attributed to the atelier of André-Charles Boulle and his sons, who exclusively employed the technique of casting bronzes for furniture in cire-perdu (lost-wax). After the death of André-Charles Boulle in 1732, his sons (known as Boulle fils) sold various models of furniture and mounts, which were bought by contemporary ébénistes such as Noël Gérard and François Lieutaud, and the mounts were employed on furniture stamped by them, such as the closely-related ebonised bureau plat formerly at Lord Byron's home, Thrumpton Hall, Nottinghamshire (sold anonymously, Christie's London, 9 December 2010, lot 9, £109,250).
The name of Pourtalès is highly-regarded in the history of collecting, due to the renown of Comte James-Alexandre de Pourtalès (28 November 1776 - 24 March 1855), an ancestor to the vendor of this bureau plat (sold at Christie's in 1959). The former was Chamberlain to the King of Prussia, having been made a comte in 1814. A banker, Pourtalès collected and subsequently created one of the most important galleries of antiquities and art in Paris, included paintings by Bronzino, Rembrandt and Ingres. After his death in 1855 and according to his will, the collection was sold by auction in Paris in February and March 1865. A large part of his collection was published in 1863 by Goupil & Co, Paris, and his portrait, painted by Paul Delaroche in 1846, is now in the Louvre.