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Lot Essay
This elegant table en chiffonnière corresponds almost exactly in form and decoration to a water-colour drawing in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York [see illustration]. Attributed to Richard de Lalonde (flourished 1788-1806) and inscribed 'Jolie table a dessus de porcelaine ronde le fond du bois est gris les ornements dore au mat, le plateau qui est entre les pieds est en beau verny assortie a la Porcelaine', the drawing was one of ten provided by the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre to Duke Albert of Sachsen-Teschen and his wife Maria-Christina. As Charles Parker has convincingly argued, the highly finished character of these drawings suggests they were made as 'sales material' for the dealers' clients rather than as working designs for an ébéniste (C. Parker et al., The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, May, 1960, p. 281 and F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, New York, 1966, vol. I, p. 284). This is further confirmed by an entry in the Mémoires of Marie-Christine of Sachsen Teschen in 1786, where she writes: 'Nous sommes allé voir au reste encore quelques uns des autres magasins d'ouvrages les plus remaquables alors en cette ville, comme ceux d'ébénisterie et de bronze de Mrs Arnault, D'Aguerre et Frost, celui de porcelaine de Japon et Lac des Indes d'un nommé Joulliot. (see T. Wolversperges, 'Les achats parisiens de Charles-Alexandre de Lorraine (1712-1780)', in Collectionner dans les Flandres et la France du Nord au XVIIIe siècle, 2005, pp. 183-201).
Joint Governors of the Low Countries between 1780 and 1792, the Sachsen-Teschen's commissioned these furnishings for the Palace at Laeken, near Brussels, which was constructed for them in 1780-5. As successors in Brussels to the great collector Charles de Lorraine and as brother-in-law and sister of Marie-Antoinette, they were undoubtedly familiar with the prevailing Parisian fashion for porcelain-mounted furniture, and indeed eight of these ten watercolour-drawings - subsequently recorded in the possession of Charles-Joseph, Prince de Ligne (1755-1814) - depicted porcelain-mounted furniture.
DOMINIQUE DAGUERRE
The heir to Simon-Philippe Poirier's atelier, Dominique Daguerre, specialised in supplying objets de luxe to the French Court and, increasingly during the 1780's, to the English nobility. Based first in the rue St. Honoré, Daguerre also opened a shop in Piccadilly, London, in the 1780s to supply the Prince of Wales and his wealthy circle of collecting friends, including the Duke of Bedford and Earl Spencer. Interestingly, Christie's held two sales, the first (anonymous but almost certainly comprising Daguerre's stock) on 15-17 March 1790 and the second on 25 March 1791, entitled Superb Articles in French Or-Moulu...Imported from Paris by Mons. Daguerre. These clearly demonstrate both the enduring popularity of porcelain-mounted furniture and Daguerre's attempts to dominate the English market. No less than three tables of this general form are included. In the first sale, lot 84 was described as A ditto oval work table, with Seve porcelain top or-moulu border and mountings. The second sale listed lot 39 as A lady's work table with porcelaine and or-moulu mountings, which was bought by a Ld.C., which might refer to Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden (1714-1794), possibly identifying that table as the one offered here.
WEISWEILER AND CARLIN
A form traditionally associated with Martin Carlin, at least one other such gueridon is known to have been stamped by Weisweiler, further underlining the close collaboration between marchand-mercier and ébéniste. A table of related proportions and with almost identical mounts, but with a circular top inset with a soft-paste Sèvres porcelain plaque decorated with scattered flowers, was sold from the Alexander Collection, Christie's, New York, 30 April 1999, lot 50 (US$937,500). A further table with painted Sèvres plaques but with a mahogany frame, was sold at Christie's, London, 4 May 1939, lot 108, and a final example, also apparently unstamped, and like the present example with a Sèvres porcelain plaque only to the top, was bequeathed by Alfred de Rothschild to the Rt. Hon. Almina, Countess of Carnarvon and sold at Christie's, London, 19-21 May 1925, lot 297.
Carlin also executed tables of this form, which were no doubt also supplied through Daguerre, as is illustrated by the Japanese lacquer-mounted table sold from the collection of Brig. Gen. R.J. Cooper, Christie's, London, 30 October 1947, lot 114 (£1,522), which is now in the Wrightsman Collection (Watson, op.cit., no.143, pp.284-6) [see illustration].
THE SÈVRES PORCELAIN AND TOLE PLAQUES
The attribution of the exquisite floral painting on the Sèvres porcelain to Edme-François Bouilliat is based on the close comparison to plaques on a writing- and reading-table by Carlin at the Wallace Collection, London (see P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Furniture, vol. II, London, 1996, cat. F327, pp. 1100-1108 and R. Savill, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1988, cat. C506, pp. 887-892). It is in particular the rectangular plaque to the top (C506a), which features a strikingly similar flower-filled basket suspended from a blue ribbon bow secured by a gilded nail and a closely related border frieze with stylised green wreaths and blue corn flowers. The five plaques at the Wallace Collection are marked with the interlaced Ls enclosing 'ff' for 1783, the gilder's mark '2000' for Henry-François Vincent, pink painter's marks as well as an incised 'a' to the edge of the top plaque. Rosalind Savill convincingly suggests that these must be the five plaques recorded to have been painted by Bouilliat in June and July 1783, before they were handed to the gilder Commelin, who between April and August 1783 painted the friezes on 25 plaques painted by Bouillatt. They were then gilded by Vincent before their final firing in September 1783 when several plaques by Bouilliat and Vincent are recorded, including one 'quarré long with frizes et corbeilles. The present porcelain plaque does not feature the marks of Boilliot or Vincent; however, it does feature the incised 'a' to the edge of the plaque, suggesting it was modelled at Sèvres by the same craftsman, and the style and composition of the painting is so similar, it allows an attribution to Edme-François Bouilliat.
Interestingly, the entry for this table in the June 1963 sale catalogue of the collection of the late René Fribourg mentions a note in Mr Fribourg's own inventory, which connects the tôle plaque of the stretcher to the 18th century Parisian shop Au Petit Dunkirque of the marchand-mercier Grancher. Thibaut Wolwesperges records Grancher as a dealer of tôle vernis, who advertised his wares in the Mercure de France 'tôle vernis, très perfectionnés pour les peintures, tant à sujets qu'a fruits et fleurs, imitant les plus belles porcelains'.
Joint Governors of the Low Countries between 1780 and 1792, the Sachsen-Teschen's commissioned these furnishings for the Palace at Laeken, near Brussels, which was constructed for them in 1780-5. As successors in Brussels to the great collector Charles de Lorraine and as brother-in-law and sister of Marie-Antoinette, they were undoubtedly familiar with the prevailing Parisian fashion for porcelain-mounted furniture, and indeed eight of these ten watercolour-drawings - subsequently recorded in the possession of Charles-Joseph, Prince de Ligne (1755-1814) - depicted porcelain-mounted furniture.
DOMINIQUE DAGUERRE
The heir to Simon-Philippe Poirier's atelier, Dominique Daguerre, specialised in supplying objets de luxe to the French Court and, increasingly during the 1780's, to the English nobility. Based first in the rue St. Honoré, Daguerre also opened a shop in Piccadilly, London, in the 1780s to supply the Prince of Wales and his wealthy circle of collecting friends, including the Duke of Bedford and Earl Spencer. Interestingly, Christie's held two sales, the first (anonymous but almost certainly comprising Daguerre's stock) on 15-17 March 1790 and the second on 25 March 1791, entitled Superb Articles in French Or-Moulu...Imported from Paris by Mons. Daguerre. These clearly demonstrate both the enduring popularity of porcelain-mounted furniture and Daguerre's attempts to dominate the English market. No less than three tables of this general form are included. In the first sale, lot 84 was described as A ditto oval work table, with Seve porcelain top or-moulu border and mountings. The second sale listed lot 39 as A lady's work table with porcelaine and or-moulu mountings, which was bought by a Ld.C., which might refer to Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden (1714-1794), possibly identifying that table as the one offered here.
WEISWEILER AND CARLIN
A form traditionally associated with Martin Carlin, at least one other such gueridon is known to have been stamped by Weisweiler, further underlining the close collaboration between marchand-mercier and ébéniste. A table of related proportions and with almost identical mounts, but with a circular top inset with a soft-paste Sèvres porcelain plaque decorated with scattered flowers, was sold from the Alexander Collection, Christie's, New York, 30 April 1999, lot 50 (US$937,500). A further table with painted Sèvres plaques but with a mahogany frame, was sold at Christie's, London, 4 May 1939, lot 108, and a final example, also apparently unstamped, and like the present example with a Sèvres porcelain plaque only to the top, was bequeathed by Alfred de Rothschild to the Rt. Hon. Almina, Countess of Carnarvon and sold at Christie's, London, 19-21 May 1925, lot 297.
Carlin also executed tables of this form, which were no doubt also supplied through Daguerre, as is illustrated by the Japanese lacquer-mounted table sold from the collection of Brig. Gen. R.J. Cooper, Christie's, London, 30 October 1947, lot 114 (£1,522), which is now in the Wrightsman Collection (Watson, op.cit., no.143, pp.284-6) [see illustration].
THE SÈVRES PORCELAIN AND TOLE PLAQUES
The attribution of the exquisite floral painting on the Sèvres porcelain to Edme-François Bouilliat is based on the close comparison to plaques on a writing- and reading-table by Carlin at the Wallace Collection, London (see P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Furniture, vol. II, London, 1996, cat. F327, pp. 1100-1108 and R. Savill, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1988, cat. C506, pp. 887-892). It is in particular the rectangular plaque to the top (C506a), which features a strikingly similar flower-filled basket suspended from a blue ribbon bow secured by a gilded nail and a closely related border frieze with stylised green wreaths and blue corn flowers. The five plaques at the Wallace Collection are marked with the interlaced Ls enclosing 'ff' for 1783, the gilder's mark '2000' for Henry-François Vincent, pink painter's marks as well as an incised 'a' to the edge of the top plaque. Rosalind Savill convincingly suggests that these must be the five plaques recorded to have been painted by Bouilliat in June and July 1783, before they were handed to the gilder Commelin, who between April and August 1783 painted the friezes on 25 plaques painted by Bouillatt. They were then gilded by Vincent before their final firing in September 1783 when several plaques by Bouilliat and Vincent are recorded, including one 'quarré long with frizes et corbeilles. The present porcelain plaque does not feature the marks of Boilliot or Vincent; however, it does feature the incised 'a' to the edge of the plaque, suggesting it was modelled at Sèvres by the same craftsman, and the style and composition of the painting is so similar, it allows an attribution to Edme-François Bouilliat.
Interestingly, the entry for this table in the June 1963 sale catalogue of the collection of the late René Fribourg mentions a note in Mr Fribourg's own inventory, which connects the tôle plaque of the stretcher to the 18th century Parisian shop Au Petit Dunkirque of the marchand-mercier Grancher. Thibaut Wolwesperges records Grancher as a dealer of tôle vernis, who advertised his wares in the Mercure de France 'tôle vernis, très perfectionnés pour les peintures, tant à sujets qu'a fruits et fleurs, imitant les plus belles porcelains'.