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Lot Essay
Claude Chevigny, maître in 1768.
This exceptional suite of seat-furniture, which survives in remarkably original state, its flowering Beauvais tapestry covers retaining so much of their original colours, remained in the Beauvau-Craon Collection at the château de Haroué for well over a hundred years. First published by Douglas Cooper, family tradition has it that the suite came to Haroué through a marriage in the 19th century. This hypothesis presents two equally credible alternatives.
Research by Ulrich Leben for his article 'Furniture made by Bernard Molitor for the Duc de Choiseul Praslin', Furniture History Society Journal, XXVII, 1991, pp.100-114, as well as by others subsequently, has established a nucleus of exceptional furniture, not only by Molitor but also by Boulle, Berthoud and others, much of which passed to Haroué following the marriage of Lucie Choiseul Praslin (d.1834) to Charles Juste, Prince de Beauvau in 1815.
As Leben observed, the ducs de Choiseul-Praslin were celebrated even in the 18th century as influential art collectors - a tradition recorded for posterity on the famous Blarenberghe box, the Boîte Choiseul, which depicts several of the goût grec interiors of the hôtel Choiseul-Praslin. Moreover, the custom by which the eldest son, on his marriage, furnished his apartment in his father's house also ensured that each generation acquired a set of furniture in the latest style. It is interesting to remember that Louis César Renard de Choiseul Praslin was married in 1775 to Charlotte O'Bryan de Thomond - a date stylistically close to that of this suite.
Frustratingly neither the 1791, 1808 or 1834 Probate Inventories cited have as yet yielded a description of this suite. It also seems unlikely that this suite is amongst that referred to by Madame Charlotte Laure Olympe le Tonnelier de Breteuil, duchesse de Praslin, wife of Charles-Juste Reynard Laure Félix de Choiseul Praslin, in her will of September 1856, in which she left to 'son fils Edgard de Praslin, un canapé, le grand fauteuil et tous les autres meubles en bois dorés couvert en damas vert'.
The Princes de Beauvau were also the beneficiaries of a large inheritance from the marquis de Boissy. Hilaire Rouillé, marquis de Boissy (1765-1840), Pair de France in 1815, had a daughter, Blanche-Catherine Rouillé de Boissy (1802-1855) who married Augustin d'Aubusson de la Feuillade (1793-1842) in 1821. Marie d'Aubusson de la Feuillade (1824-62) in turn married Marc-René, Prince de Beauveau-Craon (1816-1883) and it was from this inheritance that the remarkable Louis XVI ormolu and Chinese porcelain garniture de cheminée came (also first published by Douglas Cooper, ibid.). Subsequently in the Lagerfeld Collection, this latter garniture had originally belonged to the comte de Provence at the Palais de Luxembourg, having been seized in 1794. Interestingly the garniture and this suite stylistically date from exactly the same period.
Charles-Juste, Prince de Beauvau was also a collector of exceptional objects and furniture and it is therefore a possibility that he could have acquired this suite from one of the celebrated dispersals of the the second quarter of the 19th century. This was certainly the case with the famous ormolu-mounted jasper perfume-burner by Gouthière from Marie-Antoinette's collection, now in the Wallace Collection (F292). Originally supplied to the duc d'Aumont, it had been bought by the Prince de Beauvau following its reappearance in the 31 May 1831 auction of the Fournier collection; as it also did not feature in the 1834 inventory of the Princesse de Beauvau, it must have been acquired by the Prince between 1834-1864. Another acquisition was the famous lacquer writing-table supplied by Weisweiler and Daguerre for the Cabinet Intérieur of Marie-Antoinette at Saint-Cloud, which is now in the Louvre. This had been bought by the Prince de Beauvau in 1840. However, all of Charles-Juste, Prince de Beauvau's known acquisitions appear to have been sold after his death in Paris on 21 April 1865.
THE COLLECTION OF THE DUCS DE PRASLIN
The first duc purchased the hôtel de Belle-Isle and the château de Vaux, with their furnishings and paintings intact, in 1765. The collection was further enriched, and according to a historical almanac of 1777, the hôtel had already 'un des plus considérables cabinets de la capitale'. The inventory of the duchesse in 1784 does not list a single painting but the inventory had not been completed. Her son Rénaud Louis considerably expanded the collection and 114 Dutch paintings were finally sold in 1793, when the Republic purchased paintings and armour to a value of 36,480 livres.
Built by the architect Bruant for the grandson of the famous surintendant des Finances of King Louis XIV, Nicolas Fouquet circa 1725, the hôtel de Choiseul-Praslin occupied an entire block of houses from the rue de Lille to the Seine. On the death of the minister, maréchal de France, duc de Bell-Isle and of Gisors, the hôtel returned to the estate of the King who exchanged it in 1765 with the duc de Praslin. The second cousin of the duc de Choiseul-Amboise and principal minister of King Louis XV, César-Gabriel de Choiseul, duc de Praslin, was ambassador to Vienna in 1758, Foreign minister and then Ministre de la Marine. Disgraced in 1770, the hôtel was inherited following his death in 1785 by his son Rénaud-Csar, the famous collector, who himself died in 1791.
The Praslin hôtel was one of sumptuous opulence. Guests, using the stairs to the left of the cour d'honneur, had direct access to the antichamber of the ducal apartment, previously that of his father but completely renovated in 1785. In the antichamber they could admire a large painting of Vaux and its waterfalls. Through a second antichamber they could enter the bedroom and then through the petit salon, illuminated à l'italienne, they entered the grand salon or salon d'or. This salon, even more stunning with its magnificent view of the Seine, had five windows and was covered in green satin. A bust of the first duc de Praslin stood on an ebony plinth while two medal cabinets by André-Charles Boulle (also formerly at Haroué and now in a private collection, illustrated in Cooper, op.cit.) and a commode by the same cabinet-maker and after the same design as that delivered to King Louis XIV for his bedroom at the Grand Trianon in 1708, heightened the sumptuous furnishings. A pair of marquetry plinths in contre-partie, lacquer cabinets as well as bronzes, Chinese porcelain and numerous paintings, as well as the great Berthoud goût grec regulateur (sold from the Collections of the Viennese Rothschilds, Christie's London, 8 July 1999, lot 207) completed its decoration. It is in this interior, with its Boulle and lacquer furniture, that this remarkable suite of seat-furniture has to be imagined.
In the straightened circumstances of the Revolution, no longer allowing the opulence of former years, the duchesse, née Durfort, with her three adolescent and two adult children, decided to sell the collection. The sale commenced on 18 February 1793, although several of the more important pieces were bought back by the son, Antoine César (d. 1808) and subsequently moved to his country house at Auteuil, including the Rothschild clock, the Boulle furniture and the bust of his grandfather. It was only after 1808 that some of these pieces were eventually sent to the château de Vaux-Praslin, today the château of Vaux-le-Vicomte.
RELATED SEAT-FURNITURE
In both profile and the flowering Beauvais tapestry au fond vert, the Choiseul Haroué suite of seat-furniture is directly comparable to a suite stamped by both Jean-Jacques Pothier (maître in 1750) and Georges Jacob (maître in 1765), which B.G.B. Pallot dates to circa 1768-70 (L'Art du Siège au XVIIIème Siècle en France, Paris, 1987, p.193). Although the original 18th century provenance for the latter suite is unknown, it is almost identically treated save for the sculpture, the Choiseul/Haroué suite having entrelacs and pearls, while the Jacob/Pothier suite displays flutes and laurel. It has been suggested that the close analogies between the two suites points to the hypothesis that both suites were commissioned by the same patron for the same house, and were divided between three ateliers - Jacob, Pothier and Chevigny - in the interests of speed.
Of the Pothier/Jacob suite, eight fauteuils by Jacob are at the château de Fontainebleau; a pair of fauteuils was sold at Sotheby's New York, 17 November 1984, lot 312; another pair, unstamped, was sold in Paris, 12 November 1958, lot 63; and four further fauteuils stamped Pothier, also formerly with Segoura, are now in an Italian Private Collection.
This exceptional suite of seat-furniture, which survives in remarkably original state, its flowering Beauvais tapestry covers retaining so much of their original colours, remained in the Beauvau-Craon Collection at the château de Haroué for well over a hundred years. First published by Douglas Cooper, family tradition has it that the suite came to Haroué through a marriage in the 19th century. This hypothesis presents two equally credible alternatives.
Research by Ulrich Leben for his article 'Furniture made by Bernard Molitor for the Duc de Choiseul Praslin', Furniture History Society Journal, XXVII, 1991, pp.100-114, as well as by others subsequently, has established a nucleus of exceptional furniture, not only by Molitor but also by Boulle, Berthoud and others, much of which passed to Haroué following the marriage of Lucie Choiseul Praslin (d.1834) to Charles Juste, Prince de Beauvau in 1815.
As Leben observed, the ducs de Choiseul-Praslin were celebrated even in the 18th century as influential art collectors - a tradition recorded for posterity on the famous Blarenberghe box, the Boîte Choiseul, which depicts several of the goût grec interiors of the hôtel Choiseul-Praslin. Moreover, the custom by which the eldest son, on his marriage, furnished his apartment in his father's house also ensured that each generation acquired a set of furniture in the latest style. It is interesting to remember that Louis César Renard de Choiseul Praslin was married in 1775 to Charlotte O'Bryan de Thomond - a date stylistically close to that of this suite.
Frustratingly neither the 1791, 1808 or 1834 Probate Inventories cited have as yet yielded a description of this suite. It also seems unlikely that this suite is amongst that referred to by Madame Charlotte Laure Olympe le Tonnelier de Breteuil, duchesse de Praslin, wife of Charles-Juste Reynard Laure Félix de Choiseul Praslin, in her will of September 1856, in which she left to 'son fils Edgard de Praslin, un canapé, le grand fauteuil et tous les autres meubles en bois dorés couvert en damas vert'.
The Princes de Beauvau were also the beneficiaries of a large inheritance from the marquis de Boissy. Hilaire Rouillé, marquis de Boissy (1765-1840), Pair de France in 1815, had a daughter, Blanche-Catherine Rouillé de Boissy (1802-1855) who married Augustin d'Aubusson de la Feuillade (1793-1842) in 1821. Marie d'Aubusson de la Feuillade (1824-62) in turn married Marc-René, Prince de Beauveau-Craon (1816-1883) and it was from this inheritance that the remarkable Louis XVI ormolu and Chinese porcelain garniture de cheminée came (also first published by Douglas Cooper, ibid.). Subsequently in the Lagerfeld Collection, this latter garniture had originally belonged to the comte de Provence at the Palais de Luxembourg, having been seized in 1794. Interestingly the garniture and this suite stylistically date from exactly the same period.
Charles-Juste, Prince de Beauvau was also a collector of exceptional objects and furniture and it is therefore a possibility that he could have acquired this suite from one of the celebrated dispersals of the the second quarter of the 19th century. This was certainly the case with the famous ormolu-mounted jasper perfume-burner by Gouthière from Marie-Antoinette's collection, now in the Wallace Collection (F292). Originally supplied to the duc d'Aumont, it had been bought by the Prince de Beauvau following its reappearance in the 31 May 1831 auction of the Fournier collection; as it also did not feature in the 1834 inventory of the Princesse de Beauvau, it must have been acquired by the Prince between 1834-1864. Another acquisition was the famous lacquer writing-table supplied by Weisweiler and Daguerre for the Cabinet Intérieur of Marie-Antoinette at Saint-Cloud, which is now in the Louvre. This had been bought by the Prince de Beauvau in 1840. However, all of Charles-Juste, Prince de Beauvau's known acquisitions appear to have been sold after his death in Paris on 21 April 1865.
THE COLLECTION OF THE DUCS DE PRASLIN
The first duc purchased the hôtel de Belle-Isle and the château de Vaux, with their furnishings and paintings intact, in 1765. The collection was further enriched, and according to a historical almanac of 1777, the hôtel had already 'un des plus considérables cabinets de la capitale'. The inventory of the duchesse in 1784 does not list a single painting but the inventory had not been completed. Her son Rénaud Louis considerably expanded the collection and 114 Dutch paintings were finally sold in 1793, when the Republic purchased paintings and armour to a value of 36,480 livres.
Built by the architect Bruant for the grandson of the famous surintendant des Finances of King Louis XIV, Nicolas Fouquet circa 1725, the hôtel de Choiseul-Praslin occupied an entire block of houses from the rue de Lille to the Seine. On the death of the minister, maréchal de France, duc de Bell-Isle and of Gisors, the hôtel returned to the estate of the King who exchanged it in 1765 with the duc de Praslin. The second cousin of the duc de Choiseul-Amboise and principal minister of King Louis XV, César-Gabriel de Choiseul, duc de Praslin, was ambassador to Vienna in 1758, Foreign minister and then Ministre de la Marine. Disgraced in 1770, the hôtel was inherited following his death in 1785 by his son Rénaud-Csar, the famous collector, who himself died in 1791.
The Praslin hôtel was one of sumptuous opulence. Guests, using the stairs to the left of the cour d'honneur, had direct access to the antichamber of the ducal apartment, previously that of his father but completely renovated in 1785. In the antichamber they could admire a large painting of Vaux and its waterfalls. Through a second antichamber they could enter the bedroom and then through the petit salon, illuminated à l'italienne, they entered the grand salon or salon d'or. This salon, even more stunning with its magnificent view of the Seine, had five windows and was covered in green satin. A bust of the first duc de Praslin stood on an ebony plinth while two medal cabinets by André-Charles Boulle (also formerly at Haroué and now in a private collection, illustrated in Cooper, op.cit.) and a commode by the same cabinet-maker and after the same design as that delivered to King Louis XIV for his bedroom at the Grand Trianon in 1708, heightened the sumptuous furnishings. A pair of marquetry plinths in contre-partie, lacquer cabinets as well as bronzes, Chinese porcelain and numerous paintings, as well as the great Berthoud goût grec regulateur (sold from the Collections of the Viennese Rothschilds, Christie's London, 8 July 1999, lot 207) completed its decoration. It is in this interior, with its Boulle and lacquer furniture, that this remarkable suite of seat-furniture has to be imagined.
In the straightened circumstances of the Revolution, no longer allowing the opulence of former years, the duchesse, née Durfort, with her three adolescent and two adult children, decided to sell the collection. The sale commenced on 18 February 1793, although several of the more important pieces were bought back by the son, Antoine César (d. 1808) and subsequently moved to his country house at Auteuil, including the Rothschild clock, the Boulle furniture and the bust of his grandfather. It was only after 1808 that some of these pieces were eventually sent to the château de Vaux-Praslin, today the château of Vaux-le-Vicomte.
RELATED SEAT-FURNITURE
In both profile and the flowering Beauvais tapestry au fond vert, the Choiseul Haroué suite of seat-furniture is directly comparable to a suite stamped by both Jean-Jacques Pothier (maître in 1750) and Georges Jacob (maître in 1765), which B.G.B. Pallot dates to circa 1768-70 (L'Art du Siège au XVIIIème Siècle en France, Paris, 1987, p.193). Although the original 18th century provenance for the latter suite is unknown, it is almost identically treated save for the sculpture, the Choiseul/Haroué suite having entrelacs and pearls, while the Jacob/Pothier suite displays flutes and laurel. It has been suggested that the close analogies between the two suites points to the hypothesis that both suites were commissioned by the same patron for the same house, and were divided between three ateliers - Jacob, Pothier and Chevigny - in the interests of speed.
Of the Pothier/Jacob suite, eight fauteuils by Jacob are at the château de Fontainebleau; a pair of fauteuils was sold at Sotheby's New York, 17 November 1984, lot 312; another pair, unstamped, was sold in Paris, 12 November 1958, lot 63; and four further fauteuils stamped Pothier, also formerly with Segoura, are now in an Italian Private Collection.