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Lot Essay
This Etruscan-black and ormolu-enriched secrétaire, with its column-supported marble top and stretcher-shelf, is conceived in the Louis XVI 'antique' or Pompeian manner promoted by the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre (d.1796). Daguerre's English visitors to his atelier 'au couronne d'or' in 1785 included Henry Holland (d.1806), architect to George, Prince of Wales, and his patron George John, 2nd Earl Spencer (d.1836), and a pair of secrétaires [see illustration], made following the Anglo-French treaty of 1786, were supplied by the marchand-mercier in 1791 and remain at Althorp House, Northamptonshire (F. Watson, Louis XVI Furniture, London, 1960, no. 149 and P. Thornton and J. Hardy, 'The Spencer Furniture at Althorp', Apollo, October 1968, fig. 15, pl. XVII and T. Wolwesperges, Le Meuble Français en Lacque au XVIIIe sicle, Brussels, 2000, pp. 206-215).
The exotic fashion for lacquer had first been adopted by Daguerre in 1783 for the secrétaire, almost certainly executed by Weisweiler, which he had supplied to Louis XVI's Cabinet Intérieur at Versailles on 11 January 1784 (O. Impey and J. Whitehead, 'From Japanese box to French Royal furniture', Apollo, September 1990, p.163). The King's secrétaire incorporated three lacquer landscape panels, displayed within nashiji frames, a pattern Daguere and his ébénistes Weisweiler, Carlin and Saunier adhered to, as visible here, with either nashiji lacquer framing the panels or European vernis aventurine.
Claude-Charles Saunier (1735-1807), son of the ébéniste Jean-Charles Saunier, received his maîtrise in 1752 but did not register until 1765, in order to continue the workshop of his father for whom he had worked until then. Established in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, Saunier appears mainly to have worked for marchands-merciers and his first collaboration with Daguerre started in 1786, when they supplied a number of items in 'bois Citronnier' to the Garde-meuble de la Couronne.
A considerable number of pieces of lacquer-mounted furniture by him are recorded, including a related pair of secrétaires reputed to have come from the collection of the comte d'Artois at Bagatelle, which were then owned by William Beckford and subsequently sold, from the collection of Mrs Marella Agnelli at Sotheby's, New York, 23 October 2004, lot 38. His stamp is also found on a related secrétaire à abattant veneered in burr yew and amaranth, which was sold at Christie's, New York, 19 May 2004, lot 208. While a closely related secrétaire à abattant with Japanese lacquer and European vernis martin at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, is attributed to Carlin [see illustration].
The exotic fashion for lacquer had first been adopted by Daguerre in 1783 for the secrétaire, almost certainly executed by Weisweiler, which he had supplied to Louis XVI's Cabinet Intérieur at Versailles on 11 January 1784 (O. Impey and J. Whitehead, 'From Japanese box to French Royal furniture', Apollo, September 1990, p.163). The King's secrétaire incorporated three lacquer landscape panels, displayed within nashiji frames, a pattern Daguere and his ébénistes Weisweiler, Carlin and Saunier adhered to, as visible here, with either nashiji lacquer framing the panels or European vernis aventurine.
Claude-Charles Saunier (1735-1807), son of the ébéniste Jean-Charles Saunier, received his maîtrise in 1752 but did not register until 1765, in order to continue the workshop of his father for whom he had worked until then. Established in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, Saunier appears mainly to have worked for marchands-merciers and his first collaboration with Daguerre started in 1786, when they supplied a number of items in 'bois Citronnier' to the Garde-meuble de la Couronne.
A considerable number of pieces of lacquer-mounted furniture by him are recorded, including a related pair of secrétaires reputed to have come from the collection of the comte d'Artois at Bagatelle, which were then owned by William Beckford and subsequently sold, from the collection of Mrs Marella Agnelli at Sotheby's, New York, 23 October 2004, lot 38. His stamp is also found on a related secrétaire à abattant veneered in burr yew and amaranth, which was sold at Christie's, New York, 19 May 2004, lot 208. While a closely related secrétaire à abattant with Japanese lacquer and European vernis martin at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, is attributed to Carlin [see illustration].