Lot Essay
Charles Cressent, 1685-1768
Jacques Confesseur, 1713-59
(-) Guiot, a clockmaker who worked almost exclusively with Cressent
This clock is recorded in the cabinet of the l'appartement d'entresol of the hôtel d'Evreux, Place Vendôme. The ground floor apartment was occupied by Victor-François, duc de Broglie, the son-in-law of Antoine-Louis Crozat, baron de Thiers, who had inherited the hôtel in 1743 from his father, the celebrated financier and maecenas Antoine Crozat le Riche. In the inventory drawn up after baron de Thiers' death in 1770, this clock appears as:-
no 441 - une pendule de bureau de bois noircy ornée de bronze doré couronnée d'une figure représentant Diane, le mouvement de Guyot, prisée 300 livres
In the sale of his collection, starting on 26 February 1771, this clock was included as number 1123:-
1123 la pendule qui est placeé sur la susdite table, est un demi-cercledue un pièd d'ébene, orneé de moulu-res, & d'un malque à chaque côté au dessus de la pendule est une belle figure de Diane avec un Amour, le tout de bronze doré d'or moulu; le mouvement par Guiot
At the time of the sale the clock was still associated with its companion eight-legged bureau, also attributable to Cressent, which was enriched with espagnolette masks and stood on four cabriole and four straight supports
JACQUES CONFESSEUR AND CHARLES CRESSENT
The son of a musician, Jacques Confesseur was born in 1692. A ciseleur, he married Marie-Anne Boursault in 1713. Appointed maître-fondeur, he probably became acquainted with Cressent through Jean Pecquet, a cousin of his wife and one of the fondeurs used by the ébéniste
According to the inventory drawn up after the death of Madame Confesseur in 1737, no bronze relating to a Diana group is recorded in the atelier of the fondeur
However, in the first sale organised by Cressent in 1749, no. 6 was:-
un bureau et un serre-papiers de bois d'amarante et de bois satiné, orné de bronzes les plus distingués; toutes les figures et animaux sont aussi en bronze..
This bureau is more clearly described in 1757. The clock was enrichie d'une Diane qui tient un arc, avec un enfant qui va donné du cor
In the inventory of Jacques Confesseur drawn up in 1759, there figured:-
deux groupes dont un sanglier et un de chien
une Diane avec son chien
une figure de Diane, un cerf, un chien, un sanglier et un terme
From this evidence, it is possible to surmise that Charles Cressent, after 1737 but certainly before 1749, flanked the group of Diana and a putto, executed by Confesseur, with hunting groups on either side
This combination of the three groups appears on a cartonnier in the Wallace Collection, London with a movement by Hervé (see F.J.B.Watson, Wallace Collection Catalogues: Furniture, London, 1956, F. 72, pp. 42-45, fig. 8) and on one in the Musée du Louvre (OA 55.22); the latter has an eighteenth Century movement by Gudin
Clocks of this model, always accompanied by the groups of the sanglier et cerf and placed on bureaux by Cressent, appeared in the sales of Gaillard de Gagny, 29 March 1762, lot 57, and of the marchand Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lebrun, 3 December 1782, no. 175
CROZAT DU THIERS AND THE HOTEL D'EVREUX
The architect Pierre Bullet was engaged by Antoine II Crozat (1655-1738) in 1706 to build two hôtels behind Mansart's facades in the Place Vendôme. Antoine Crozat offered one to his son-in-law, the comte d'Evreux, who was to become 'le repentir et la douleur' of the father-in-law and who went on to build the palais de l'Eysée. Following the separation from her husband, the comtesse d'Evreux remained with her father and eventually her hôtel was rented to the Portuguese ambassador. She died in 1729 and under the 1743 settlement following her father's death in 1738, the hôtel d'Evreux was inherited by his third son Louis-Antoine, baron de Thiers, marquis de Moy and Gouverneur de Champagne, while their father's neighbouring hôtel went to another brother, Joseph-Antoine, baron de Tugny. Like his brother, Crozat de Thiers commissioned the architect Pierre Contant d'Ivry to remodel and re-arrange his hôtel between 1744-46 and he installed in it his collections, which ranked after only those of the King and the duc d'Orléans
During Crozat de Thiers' time, in the appartements d'entresol inhabited by his daughter and son-in-law the duc and duchesse de Broglie, are recorded:-
quantité de modèles de Michel Ange, de l'Algarde et des enfants du François Flamand
while in the petit salon, where this clock is recorded, the portraits of the duchesse de Broglie and her sister, la comtesse de Béthume, painted by Tocqué, were hung
A similar cartonnier clock by Delafon of Avallon, from the 'Au Balancièr de Cristal' collection, is illustrated in Tardy, French Clocks, The World Over, Part One, Paris, 1981, 5e edition, p.149
The Houghton clock appears on the mantelpiece in Eugène Lami's 1882 watercolour of barons Alphonse and Gustave de Rothschild and their families in the salon of 23 Avenue Marigny, Paris
Jacques Confesseur, 1713-59
(-) Guiot, a clockmaker who worked almost exclusively with Cressent
This clock is recorded in the cabinet of the l'appartement d'entresol of the hôtel d'Evreux, Place Vendôme. The ground floor apartment was occupied by Victor-François, duc de Broglie, the son-in-law of Antoine-Louis Crozat, baron de Thiers, who had inherited the hôtel in 1743 from his father, the celebrated financier and maecenas Antoine Crozat le Riche. In the inventory drawn up after baron de Thiers' death in 1770, this clock appears as:-
no 441 - une pendule de bureau de bois noircy ornée de bronze doré couronnée d'une figure représentant Diane, le mouvement de Guyot, prisée 300 livres
In the sale of his collection, starting on 26 February 1771, this clock was included as number 1123:-
1123 la pendule qui est placeé sur la susdite table, est un demi-cercledue un pièd d'ébene, orneé de moulu-res, & d'un malque à chaque côté au dessus de la pendule est une belle figure de Diane avec un Amour, le tout de bronze doré d'or moulu; le mouvement par Guiot
At the time of the sale the clock was still associated with its companion eight-legged bureau, also attributable to Cressent, which was enriched with espagnolette masks and stood on four cabriole and four straight supports
JACQUES CONFESSEUR AND CHARLES CRESSENT
The son of a musician, Jacques Confesseur was born in 1692. A ciseleur, he married Marie-Anne Boursault in 1713. Appointed maître-fondeur, he probably became acquainted with Cressent through Jean Pecquet, a cousin of his wife and one of the fondeurs used by the ébéniste
According to the inventory drawn up after the death of Madame Confesseur in 1737, no bronze relating to a Diana group is recorded in the atelier of the fondeur
However, in the first sale organised by Cressent in 1749, no. 6 was:-
un bureau et un serre-papiers de bois d'amarante et de bois satiné, orné de bronzes les plus distingués; toutes les figures et animaux sont aussi en bronze..
This bureau is more clearly described in 1757. The clock was enrichie d'une Diane qui tient un arc, avec un enfant qui va donné du cor
In the inventory of Jacques Confesseur drawn up in 1759, there figured:-
deux groupes dont un sanglier et un de chien
une Diane avec son chien
une figure de Diane, un cerf, un chien, un sanglier et un terme
From this evidence, it is possible to surmise that Charles Cressent, after 1737 but certainly before 1749, flanked the group of Diana and a putto, executed by Confesseur, with hunting groups on either side
This combination of the three groups appears on a cartonnier in the Wallace Collection, London with a movement by Hervé (see F.J.B.Watson, Wallace Collection Catalogues: Furniture, London, 1956, F. 72, pp. 42-45, fig. 8) and on one in the Musée du Louvre (OA 55.22); the latter has an eighteenth Century movement by Gudin
Clocks of this model, always accompanied by the groups of the sanglier et cerf and placed on bureaux by Cressent, appeared in the sales of Gaillard de Gagny, 29 March 1762, lot 57, and of the marchand Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lebrun, 3 December 1782, no. 175
CROZAT DU THIERS AND THE HOTEL D'EVREUX
The architect Pierre Bullet was engaged by Antoine II Crozat (1655-1738) in 1706 to build two hôtels behind Mansart's facades in the Place Vendôme. Antoine Crozat offered one to his son-in-law, the comte d'Evreux, who was to become 'le repentir et la douleur' of the father-in-law and who went on to build the palais de l'Eysée. Following the separation from her husband, the comtesse d'Evreux remained with her father and eventually her hôtel was rented to the Portuguese ambassador. She died in 1729 and under the 1743 settlement following her father's death in 1738, the hôtel d'Evreux was inherited by his third son Louis-Antoine, baron de Thiers, marquis de Moy and Gouverneur de Champagne, while their father's neighbouring hôtel went to another brother, Joseph-Antoine, baron de Tugny. Like his brother, Crozat de Thiers commissioned the architect Pierre Contant d'Ivry to remodel and re-arrange his hôtel between 1744-46 and he installed in it his collections, which ranked after only those of the King and the duc d'Orléans
During Crozat de Thiers' time, in the appartements d'entresol inhabited by his daughter and son-in-law the duc and duchesse de Broglie, are recorded:-
quantité de modèles de Michel Ange, de l'Algarde et des enfants du François Flamand
while in the petit salon, where this clock is recorded, the portraits of the duchesse de Broglie and her sister, la comtesse de Béthume, painted by Tocqué, were hung
A similar cartonnier clock by Delafon of Avallon, from the 'Au Balancièr de Cristal' collection, is illustrated in Tardy, French Clocks, The World Over, Part One, Paris, 1981, 5e edition, p.149
The Houghton clock appears on the mantelpiece in Eugène Lami's 1882 watercolour of barons Alphonse and Gustave de Rothschild and their families in the salon of 23 Avenue Marigny, Paris