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Lot Essay
Charles Cressent, 1685-1768, marchand-ébéniste and sculpteur.
Jean Gillet, maître in 1737.
CHARLES CRESSENT
Charles Cressent is indisputably the most representative craftsman of the Régence period when fashion started to turn to furniture finished with relatively simple wood veneers, but fitted with ormolu mounts of increasing sculptural quality and splendour. In this arena Cressent stood alone, his early training as a sculptor being more than evident in the originality and quality of the mounts which he produced. He became master sculptor in 1719 and a member of the Academy of Saint-Luc. He is recorded as both sculpteur and ébéniste to the duc d'Orléans, and he was constantly in difficulties with the guild of fondeurs and doreurs because, in contravention of the guild rules, he chased and gilded bronzes in his own workshop. In many instances he had even supplied to the casters, models which he had created himself. His defense against this was that it enabled him to supervise the quality of the work and to prevent unauthorized copies being made; it has to be said that his defiance of the guild regulations has left a legacy of ormolu mounts of unparalleled distinction.
COMMODES A DOUBLES CROSSES EN S ET CHUTES DE FLEURS
Cressent designed a number of very distinctive commodes which have now been been identified in the catalogue raisonné compiled by Alexandre Pradère. This places the present pair in a group of only 10 examples classified as Les commodes à doubles crosses en S et chutes de fleurs (A. Pradère, op.cit., pp.283-5, including one supplied to Jean-Baptiste de Machault d'Arnouville (1701-1794). Of this group, Pradère concludes that the earliest model is those with a chute mosaique, as on this pair. Of this small group, the present pair have the richest mounts to the apron.
Pradère op. cit. has also suggested the possibility that the Frankfurt-Am-Main wax seal to the reverse of these commodes may suggest a Rothschild provenance for this pair. Certainly the Rothschild's predilection for bringing together almost identical pairs is borne out both by the De Loose commodes from Marly (sold at Christie's New York, 26 October 2001, lot 280), as well as by the matched pair of commodes by Cressent, one being a faithful copy of the other with mounts transposed, in the James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor.
MADAME JACQUES BALSAN
The daughter of William Kissam Vanderbilt and Alva Smith Belmont, Consuelo became a celebrated debutante at her parents' Newport residence, Marble House, where in August of 1895 she met Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough. She married the Duke that autumn and returned to England to live at Blenheim Palace. She separated from the 9th Duke in 1905 and was officially divorced in 1920. The following summer she married the French aviator and her close friend, Jacques Balsan. Settling in France, they divided their time between the splendid 17th century Château de Saint-Georges-Motel, near Eure, Normandy and the hôtel Marlborough, Paris, both of which they filled with exceptional French furniture and works of art of the ancien regime. Fleeing to America and Palm Beach in 1940, much of Colonel and Madame Balsan's collection was recorded for posterity by L.-H. Prost, Collection de Madame et du Colonel Balsan, Paris, privately printed, circa 1930.
Jean Gillet, maître in 1737.
CHARLES CRESSENT
Charles Cressent is indisputably the most representative craftsman of the Régence period when fashion started to turn to furniture finished with relatively simple wood veneers, but fitted with ormolu mounts of increasing sculptural quality and splendour. In this arena Cressent stood alone, his early training as a sculptor being more than evident in the originality and quality of the mounts which he produced. He became master sculptor in 1719 and a member of the Academy of Saint-Luc. He is recorded as both sculpteur and ébéniste to the duc d'Orléans, and he was constantly in difficulties with the guild of fondeurs and doreurs because, in contravention of the guild rules, he chased and gilded bronzes in his own workshop. In many instances he had even supplied to the casters, models which he had created himself. His defense against this was that it enabled him to supervise the quality of the work and to prevent unauthorized copies being made; it has to be said that his defiance of the guild regulations has left a legacy of ormolu mounts of unparalleled distinction.
COMMODES A DOUBLES CROSSES EN S ET CHUTES DE FLEURS
Cressent designed a number of very distinctive commodes which have now been been identified in the catalogue raisonné compiled by Alexandre Pradère. This places the present pair in a group of only 10 examples classified as Les commodes à doubles crosses en S et chutes de fleurs (A. Pradère, op.cit., pp.283-5, including one supplied to Jean-Baptiste de Machault d'Arnouville (1701-1794). Of this group, Pradère concludes that the earliest model is those with a chute mosaique, as on this pair. Of this small group, the present pair have the richest mounts to the apron.
Pradère op. cit. has also suggested the possibility that the Frankfurt-Am-Main wax seal to the reverse of these commodes may suggest a Rothschild provenance for this pair. Certainly the Rothschild's predilection for bringing together almost identical pairs is borne out both by the De Loose commodes from Marly (sold at Christie's New York, 26 October 2001, lot 280), as well as by the matched pair of commodes by Cressent, one being a faithful copy of the other with mounts transposed, in the James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor.
MADAME JACQUES BALSAN
The daughter of William Kissam Vanderbilt and Alva Smith Belmont, Consuelo became a celebrated debutante at her parents' Newport residence, Marble House, where in August of 1895 she met Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough. She married the Duke that autumn and returned to England to live at Blenheim Palace. She separated from the 9th Duke in 1905 and was officially divorced in 1920. The following summer she married the French aviator and her close friend, Jacques Balsan. Settling in France, they divided their time between the splendid 17th century Château de Saint-Georges-Motel, near Eure, Normandy and the hôtel Marlborough, Paris, both of which they filled with exceptional French furniture and works of art of the ancien regime. Fleeing to America and Palm Beach in 1940, much of Colonel and Madame Balsan's collection was recorded for posterity by L.-H. Prost, Collection de Madame et du Colonel Balsan, Paris, privately printed, circa 1930.