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Lot Essay
This magnificent 'Boulle' cabinet is one from a suite of four (two première- and contre-partie pairs) commissioned in 1840 from Alexandre-Louis Bellangé by Ferdinand-Philippe, duc d'Orléans, for the dining-room in his apartment located in the Gallery on the ground floor of the pavillon de Marsan at the Tuileries.
ALEXANDRE-LOUIS BELLANGÉ (1799-1863)
Nephew of the celebrated ébéniste Pierre-Antoine Bellangé (d. 1827), who supplied furniture to Napoleon I, his entourage and later, under the Restauration, to Charles X, Alexandre-Louis Bellangé worked both alongside and independently of his father, Louis-François Bellangé (d. 1827). Establishing his own atelier and shop at 33, rue des Marais-Saint-Martin and describing himself as "menuisier fabricant de meubles anciens et modernes, magasin de curiosités", Bellangé specialised in the production of furniture incorporating porcelain, lacquer, hardstones, as well as imitating the Boulle style. In 1833 he tried unsuccessfully to get a place at the garde-Meuble de la Couronne restoring earlier furniture. However, disappointment at this rejection must have been tempered by his subsequent appointment as a supplier of furniture to the duc d'Orléans. His gold medal-winning contribution to the Paris exhibition of 1839 won him the following praise from the Jury: "M. Bellangé fils s'est toujours fait remarquer par l'excellente confection de ses meubles et par ses imitations exactes et con+ciencieuses des styles [...] qui prouvent tout à la fois la souplesse et+la vigueur de son talent". Meanwhile, at the 1844 Exposition des produits de l'industrie française, King Louis-Philippe purchased a Boulle table from him, and later, at the 1851 Crystal Palace exhibition, he was awarded a second class medal for his Boulle furniture. Examples of his furniture, produced either independently or in collaboration with his father, may be found in the Wallace Collection, London and in the collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle. Meanwhile, a magnificent porcelain-mounted secrétaire à abattant by Bellangé père et fils, the property of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, was sold Christie's, New York, 30 October 1996, lot 319 ($415,000).
THE D'ORLÉANS COMMISSION
Direction of the important commission for the duc d'Orléans was entrusted to the architect and designer Charles-Auguste Questel (1807-1888), and a memorandum dated 4 May 1840 reveals the fastidiousness with which it was both supervised and undertaken. Before supplying the four finished Boulle marquetry cabinets "très riche de dessin", Bellangé was required to work up a full-size wood and clay model, or gabarit, which was then put in place at the Tuileries "pour en voir l'effet". The ébéniste then produced the final versions having made any necessary modifications according to the wishes of both the prince and Questel. Responsible as he was for all marble work undertaken as part of the re-modelling of the duc's dining-room, Questel no doubt also specified the matching slabs of Pyrenees marble for the tops to the cabinets. Bellangé's invoice of 39 800 F (as a separate commission he also supplied a set of forty Louis XIV style giltwood chairs for the dining-room) was negotiated down to 37 600 F by the prince, who paid for the cabinets in two instalments from his own personal funds.
The duc d'Orléans' enjoyment of Bellangé's four cabinets and his sumptuously furnished apartments in general was short-lived after his tragic and premature death in a freak carriage accident in 1842 at the age of only thirty-one. In the inventory of the late prince's property drawn up on 19 August 1842, little more than a month following his demise, the cabinets were listed as number 605 and described as: "quatre meubles, buffets en marqueterie d'écaille et de bronze doré et ciselé, de Bellanger, imitation de Boulle, avec dessus de marbre rubanné des Pyrénées, prisés ensemble dix mille francs". It is interesting to note that their value was estimated to be barely more than a quarter of their cost price only two years earlier.
SALE AND SEPARATION OF THE CABINETS
Following the fall of the July Monarchy in 1848 and subsequent coup d'état staged by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (later Napoléon III) in December 1851, a decree of 22 January 1852 gave the former d'Orléans royal family one year to dispose of all its property and possessions in France. In accordance with the decree, the duchesse d'Orléans instructed the auctioneer Maître Bonnefons de Lavialle, responsible for the late duc's inventory valuation a decade earlier, to conduct a sale of the contents of the Tuileries apartment (Catalogue des tableaux modernes composant la Galerie du feu Prince royal, etc, Hôtel des Ventes, 18-20 January 1853). Bellangé's Boulle cabinets, whose marble tops had been broken, probably during the storming of the Tuileries in February 1848, were offered as two consecutive lots (218 and 219), the two première partie and two contre partie cabinets mistakenly 'paired' together, rather than sold as two complementary pairs. Parisian press coverage of the sale noted (and the Bonnefons de Lavialle sale archive confirms) that the first pair offered (in contre partie) was bought by a Monsieur Montessier for 5 000 F, whilst the pair in première partie was purchased by the duc de Galliera for the lesser sum of only 4 050 F.
In July 1852, Raffaele de Ferrari, a hugely wealthy Italian businessman created duc de Galliera in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI, had acquired the hôtel de Matignon from the duc de Montpensier, another of Louis-Philippe's sons, who under the terms of the earlier decree was also obliged to sell his properties. After Galliera's death in 1876, his widow Marie de Brignole Sale allowed Louis-Philippe Albert, comte de Paris and elder son of the duc d'Orléans, to occupy the ground floor of the hôtel, where the 'pair' of Boulle cabinets, which doubtless he would have remembered from his early childhood spent at the Tuileries, resided in the salon des Fleurs, the ante-room to the dining-room. Ironically, but for the untimely intervention of the government's law of 23 June 1886 exiling all heirs of the former royal families, the cabinets would have returned to d'Orléans ownership, after the duchesse de Galliera willed the hôtel and its contents in favour of the comte. However, the exile law caused her to revoke her will, and in a codicil the following October she instead left the hôtel de Matignon to the Austro-Hungarian government, who after her death in late 1888 used it for the residence of their ambassador to France. At the onset of the Great War in August 1914, the hôtel and its contents were confiscated and in 1923 they officially became the property of the French State. The cabinets appear to have remained in place until at least 1935, and in 1964 they were added to the inventory of the Mobilier national. Since 1974 they have graced one of the vestibules at the hôtel de Marigny, an annex of the Elysée palace serving as a residence for visiting dignitaries (see photograph above).
Subsequent to their sale in 1853 to a "M. Montessier", the history of the two contre partie cabinets seems to have gone undocumented, making the re-appearance here of one half of the 'pair' (the whereabouts of the other, fourth cabinet remains tantalisingly unknown) all the more exciting. It seems plausible that the 'Montessier' in question may have actually been a Paul Sigisbert Moitessier (the spelling of the surname appears to have been inconsistent), a wealthy lawyer and banker, known less for his own merits than for the celebrated beauty of his much younger wife, Marie-Clotilde-Inès de Foucauld, who was painted on two occasions by Ingres (1851 and 1856, now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington and the National Gallery, London, respectively). If this is indeed the same "Montessier" who purchased the pair of cabinets, it is conceivable they followed the same route as the two Ingres portraits after the deaths of Paul Sigisbert in 1889 and of his wife in 1897. The couple had had two daughters, and the paintings were first inherited by the elder, Clothilde, who had married the comte de Flavigny. After Clothilde's death in 1914, they passed down to her younger sister, Marie, who had married the vicomte de Taillepied de Bondy. Marie died in 1834 and the paintings were in turn inherited by her eldest son, François, comte Taillepied de Bondy, who sold them both only two years later.
Examples of furniture and objects commissioned by Ferdinand-Philippe d'Orléans appear on the auction market very rarely. Most notable in recent years have been the magnificent 1836 'Sympathique' clock by Breguet, with ormolu-mounted Boulle case designed (as with the Boulle cabinets) by Questel and executed by Denière (sold Sothebys, New York, 2 December 1999, lot 22, $5.8 million) and a fine Renaissance Revival carved ivory and mother-of-pearl-inlaid ebony bookstand by Jacob-Desmalter, circa 1835-40 (sold Christie's, Amsterdam, 15-16 February 2005, lot 400, 280,800 euros).
ALEXANDRE-LOUIS BELLANGÉ (1799-1863)
Nephew of the celebrated ébéniste Pierre-Antoine Bellangé (d. 1827), who supplied furniture to Napoleon I, his entourage and later, under the Restauration, to Charles X, Alexandre-Louis Bellangé worked both alongside and independently of his father, Louis-François Bellangé (d. 1827). Establishing his own atelier and shop at 33, rue des Marais-Saint-Martin and describing himself as "menuisier fabricant de meubles anciens et modernes, magasin de curiosités", Bellangé specialised in the production of furniture incorporating porcelain, lacquer, hardstones, as well as imitating the Boulle style. In 1833 he tried unsuccessfully to get a place at the garde-Meuble de la Couronne restoring earlier furniture. However, disappointment at this rejection must have been tempered by his subsequent appointment as a supplier of furniture to the duc d'Orléans. His gold medal-winning contribution to the Paris exhibition of 1839 won him the following praise from the Jury: "M. Bellangé fils s'est toujours fait remarquer par l'excellente confection de ses meubles et par ses imitations exactes et con+ciencieuses des styles [...] qui prouvent tout à la fois la souplesse et+la vigueur de son talent". Meanwhile, at the 1844 Exposition des produits de l'industrie française, King Louis-Philippe purchased a Boulle table from him, and later, at the 1851 Crystal Palace exhibition, he was awarded a second class medal for his Boulle furniture. Examples of his furniture, produced either independently or in collaboration with his father, may be found in the Wallace Collection, London and in the collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle. Meanwhile, a magnificent porcelain-mounted secrétaire à abattant by Bellangé père et fils, the property of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, was sold Christie's, New York, 30 October 1996, lot 319 ($415,000).
THE D'ORLÉANS COMMISSION
Direction of the important commission for the duc d'Orléans was entrusted to the architect and designer Charles-Auguste Questel (1807-1888), and a memorandum dated 4 May 1840 reveals the fastidiousness with which it was both supervised and undertaken. Before supplying the four finished Boulle marquetry cabinets "très riche de dessin", Bellangé was required to work up a full-size wood and clay model, or gabarit, which was then put in place at the Tuileries "pour en voir l'effet". The ébéniste then produced the final versions having made any necessary modifications according to the wishes of both the prince and Questel. Responsible as he was for all marble work undertaken as part of the re-modelling of the duc's dining-room, Questel no doubt also specified the matching slabs of Pyrenees marble for the tops to the cabinets. Bellangé's invoice of 39 800 F (as a separate commission he also supplied a set of forty Louis XIV style giltwood chairs for the dining-room) was negotiated down to 37 600 F by the prince, who paid for the cabinets in two instalments from his own personal funds.
The duc d'Orléans' enjoyment of Bellangé's four cabinets and his sumptuously furnished apartments in general was short-lived after his tragic and premature death in a freak carriage accident in 1842 at the age of only thirty-one. In the inventory of the late prince's property drawn up on 19 August 1842, little more than a month following his demise, the cabinets were listed as number 605 and described as: "quatre meubles, buffets en marqueterie d'écaille et de bronze doré et ciselé, de Bellanger, imitation de Boulle, avec dessus de marbre rubanné des Pyrénées, prisés ensemble dix mille francs". It is interesting to note that their value was estimated to be barely more than a quarter of their cost price only two years earlier.
SALE AND SEPARATION OF THE CABINETS
Following the fall of the July Monarchy in 1848 and subsequent coup d'état staged by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (later Napoléon III) in December 1851, a decree of 22 January 1852 gave the former d'Orléans royal family one year to dispose of all its property and possessions in France. In accordance with the decree, the duchesse d'Orléans instructed the auctioneer Maître Bonnefons de Lavialle, responsible for the late duc's inventory valuation a decade earlier, to conduct a sale of the contents of the Tuileries apartment (Catalogue des tableaux modernes composant la Galerie du feu Prince royal, etc, Hôtel des Ventes, 18-20 January 1853). Bellangé's Boulle cabinets, whose marble tops had been broken, probably during the storming of the Tuileries in February 1848, were offered as two consecutive lots (218 and 219), the two première partie and two contre partie cabinets mistakenly 'paired' together, rather than sold as two complementary pairs. Parisian press coverage of the sale noted (and the Bonnefons de Lavialle sale archive confirms) that the first pair offered (in contre partie) was bought by a Monsieur Montessier for 5 000 F, whilst the pair in première partie was purchased by the duc de Galliera for the lesser sum of only 4 050 F.
In July 1852, Raffaele de Ferrari, a hugely wealthy Italian businessman created duc de Galliera in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI, had acquired the hôtel de Matignon from the duc de Montpensier, another of Louis-Philippe's sons, who under the terms of the earlier decree was also obliged to sell his properties. After Galliera's death in 1876, his widow Marie de Brignole Sale allowed Louis-Philippe Albert, comte de Paris and elder son of the duc d'Orléans, to occupy the ground floor of the hôtel, where the 'pair' of Boulle cabinets, which doubtless he would have remembered from his early childhood spent at the Tuileries, resided in the salon des Fleurs, the ante-room to the dining-room. Ironically, but for the untimely intervention of the government's law of 23 June 1886 exiling all heirs of the former royal families, the cabinets would have returned to d'Orléans ownership, after the duchesse de Galliera willed the hôtel and its contents in favour of the comte. However, the exile law caused her to revoke her will, and in a codicil the following October she instead left the hôtel de Matignon to the Austro-Hungarian government, who after her death in late 1888 used it for the residence of their ambassador to France. At the onset of the Great War in August 1914, the hôtel and its contents were confiscated and in 1923 they officially became the property of the French State. The cabinets appear to have remained in place until at least 1935, and in 1964 they were added to the inventory of the Mobilier national. Since 1974 they have graced one of the vestibules at the hôtel de Marigny, an annex of the Elysée palace serving as a residence for visiting dignitaries (see photograph above).
Subsequent to their sale in 1853 to a "M. Montessier", the history of the two contre partie cabinets seems to have gone undocumented, making the re-appearance here of one half of the 'pair' (the whereabouts of the other, fourth cabinet remains tantalisingly unknown) all the more exciting. It seems plausible that the 'Montessier' in question may have actually been a Paul Sigisbert Moitessier (the spelling of the surname appears to have been inconsistent), a wealthy lawyer and banker, known less for his own merits than for the celebrated beauty of his much younger wife, Marie-Clotilde-Inès de Foucauld, who was painted on two occasions by Ingres (1851 and 1856, now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington and the National Gallery, London, respectively). If this is indeed the same "Montessier" who purchased the pair of cabinets, it is conceivable they followed the same route as the two Ingres portraits after the deaths of Paul Sigisbert in 1889 and of his wife in 1897. The couple had had two daughters, and the paintings were first inherited by the elder, Clothilde, who had married the comte de Flavigny. After Clothilde's death in 1914, they passed down to her younger sister, Marie, who had married the vicomte de Taillepied de Bondy. Marie died in 1834 and the paintings were in turn inherited by her eldest son, François, comte Taillepied de Bondy, who sold them both only two years later.
Examples of furniture and objects commissioned by Ferdinand-Philippe d'Orléans appear on the auction market very rarely. Most notable in recent years have been the magnificent 1836 'Sympathique' clock by Breguet, with ormolu-mounted Boulle case designed (as with the Boulle cabinets) by Questel and executed by Denière (sold Sothebys, New York, 2 December 1999, lot 22, $5.8 million) and a fine Renaissance Revival carved ivory and mother-of-pearl-inlaid ebony bookstand by Jacob-Desmalter, circa 1835-40 (sold Christie's, Amsterdam, 15-16 February 2005, lot 400, 280,800 euros).