.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Claude-Charles Saunier, maître in 1752.
Descending from a family of ébénistes, Saunier was accepted into the community and the workshop of his father, Jean-Charles, in 1757. Located in the Rue Faubourg Saint-Antoine, the premises had originally been occupied by his grandfather, Charles. Upon his succession to his father's workshop in 1765, Claude-Charles registered his letters patent and continued the business. He briefly continued to adopt the Louis XV style and then rapidly adopted the neoclassic designs of the Transitional and Louis XVI periods that he appears to have favored, and for which he is now renowned.
Saunier's success was not confined to France and his reputation reached London through his work for the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre. Daguerre, who specialized in supplying objets de luxe to the French Court and, after the Revolution, particularly to the English nobility. Established in the rue St. Honoré, in the 1780's, Daguerre opened a shop in Piccadilly, London to supply George, Prince of Wales and his circle.
Japanese lacquer, especially of the superb quality found on the present examples, was so expensive that virtually no cabinet-maker was able to buy it himself in order to decorate his furniture. Instead, the powerful marchands- merciers enjoyed a monopoly on the importation of all nonperishable goods from the Orient, and merchants such as Thomas-Joachim Hébert and Lazare Duvaux and later Daguerre promoted the fashion for mounting furniture with lacquer panels in the 1740's and 1750's. Saunier produced a number of pieces in both Chinese and Japanese lacquer, as well as in tôle painted in imitation of lacquer. Japanese lacquer was the most prized and expensive form of lacquer used in this way, both for its extremely fine quality and for its strikingly spare designs, which made it particularly appropriate for embellishing the more understated furniture of the Louis XVI period, such as these encoignures.
Descending from a family of ébénistes, Saunier was accepted into the community and the workshop of his father, Jean-Charles, in 1757. Located in the Rue Faubourg Saint-Antoine, the premises had originally been occupied by his grandfather, Charles. Upon his succession to his father's workshop in 1765, Claude-Charles registered his letters patent and continued the business. He briefly continued to adopt the Louis XV style and then rapidly adopted the neoclassic designs of the Transitional and Louis XVI periods that he appears to have favored, and for which he is now renowned.
Saunier's success was not confined to France and his reputation reached London through his work for the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre. Daguerre, who specialized in supplying objets de luxe to the French Court and, after the Revolution, particularly to the English nobility. Established in the rue St. Honoré, in the 1780's, Daguerre opened a shop in Piccadilly, London to supply George, Prince of Wales and his circle.
Japanese lacquer, especially of the superb quality found on the present examples, was so expensive that virtually no cabinet-maker was able to buy it himself in order to decorate his furniture. Instead, the powerful marchands- merciers enjoyed a monopoly on the importation of all nonperishable goods from the Orient, and merchants such as Thomas-Joachim Hébert and Lazare Duvaux and later Daguerre promoted the fashion for mounting furniture with lacquer panels in the 1740's and 1750's. Saunier produced a number of pieces in both Chinese and Japanese lacquer, as well as in tôle painted in imitation of lacquer. Japanese lacquer was the most prized and expensive form of lacquer used in this way, both for its extremely fine quality and for its strikingly spare designs, which made it particularly appropriate for embellishing the more understated furniture of the Louis XVI period, such as these encoignures.