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Lot Essay
Joseph-Pierre-Jacques Duguay (fl.1756-1793)
These tureens were probably Duguay's pièce de resistance, and other pieces of the same year and design also engraved with the Branicki coat-of-arms are known: two pots à oille stands previously in the Firestone Collection and now in the Museum of Fine Art, Boston and a pair of fish dishes exhibited by the silver dealer Jacques Helft in New York in 1933 (see Exhibition of Old French Gold and Silver Plate, XVIth to XVIIIth Century, In Aid of the French Hospital, New York, December 1933, no. 39). Further pieces by Duguay are in Metropolitan Museum, New York: a ewer and basin of 1761/2 and a teapot of 1772/3 from the Puiforcat Collection.
Duguay was most probably sub-contracted by Cheret to complete this service. This is suggested by the engraved inscription and the knowledge that Cheret worked with other goldsmiths, similarly inscribing his name on other pieces. He worked in this fashion with Jean-Charles Roquillet-Desnoyers, one of his former apprentices with whom he collaborated regularly.
This particular soup-tureen form very much retains characteristics of the Louis XV style and does not display features of the neo-classical period from the reign of King Louis XVI, found especially in the work of Robert-Joseph Auguste. However, the handles shaped as ram's masks were to become very much part of the decorative repertoire of the goldsmiths in the later period. It would appear that this form of tureen is the earliest example to employ this form of ornament. Several goldsmiths would later use this handle form on tureens, pots à oille and wine-coolers, such as Charles Spriman on a tureen dated 1775, now in the collection of the Louvre, Paris.
FRANCOIS XAVIER BRANICKI (1731-1819)
The Riahi tureens were commissioned by the celebrated Polish courtier François Xavier Branicki (1731-1819) during a diplomatic mission he made between December 1772 and April 1773 to the court of King Louis XV of France (r.1715-1774). Branicki had travelled to Paris to negotiate with the French King on behalf of the King of Poland over the terms of the partition of Poland. Branicki was a colourful character who had risen under the patronage and favour of the Polish King Stanislaw II (r.1764-1795). Born Stanislaw Poniatowski, he was elected King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1764 partly due to the patronage of Empress Catherine of Russia, with whom he had enjoyed a very close friendship. Branicki had accompanied Stanislaw to St. Petersburg in 1762 and was party to the scheming necessary for the affair that ensued between Stanislaw and the Empress. During a later visit to St. Petersburg, Branicki met Alexandra Vasil'evna Englehardt, niece of the Empress' favourite Count Potemkin, and married her in 1781. Branicki trained as a soldier and fought in the Seven Years War (1756-1763). With the election of Stanislaw as King, Branicki was invested with the highest order of chivalry in Poland, The Order of the White Eagle, and was appointed as Great Crown Podstoli. He was sent as envoy to the court of King Frederick the Great in 1765 and was given other high appointments culminating in the office of Great Crown Hetman (leader of the army) in 1774. He held this post until 1794, when his opposition to reform and his support for the Russian suzerainty over the Polish Parliament resulted in a death sentence being passed against him. He fled Poland and travelled to Russia where he lived on the Russian estates given to him by the Empress Catharine.
These tureens were probably Duguay's pièce de resistance, and other pieces of the same year and design also engraved with the Branicki coat-of-arms are known: two pots à oille stands previously in the Firestone Collection and now in the Museum of Fine Art, Boston and a pair of fish dishes exhibited by the silver dealer Jacques Helft in New York in 1933 (see Exhibition of Old French Gold and Silver Plate, XVIth to XVIIIth Century, In Aid of the French Hospital, New York, December 1933, no. 39). Further pieces by Duguay are in Metropolitan Museum, New York: a ewer and basin of 1761/2 and a teapot of 1772/3 from the Puiforcat Collection.
Duguay was most probably sub-contracted by Cheret to complete this service. This is suggested by the engraved inscription and the knowledge that Cheret worked with other goldsmiths, similarly inscribing his name on other pieces. He worked in this fashion with Jean-Charles Roquillet-Desnoyers, one of his former apprentices with whom he collaborated regularly.
This particular soup-tureen form very much retains characteristics of the Louis XV style and does not display features of the neo-classical period from the reign of King Louis XVI, found especially in the work of Robert-Joseph Auguste. However, the handles shaped as ram's masks were to become very much part of the decorative repertoire of the goldsmiths in the later period. It would appear that this form of tureen is the earliest example to employ this form of ornament. Several goldsmiths would later use this handle form on tureens, pots à oille and wine-coolers, such as Charles Spriman on a tureen dated 1775, now in the collection of the Louvre, Paris.
FRANCOIS XAVIER BRANICKI (1731-1819)
The Riahi tureens were commissioned by the celebrated Polish courtier François Xavier Branicki (1731-1819) during a diplomatic mission he made between December 1772 and April 1773 to the court of King Louis XV of France (r.1715-1774). Branicki had travelled to Paris to negotiate with the French King on behalf of the King of Poland over the terms of the partition of Poland. Branicki was a colourful character who had risen under the patronage and favour of the Polish King Stanislaw II (r.1764-1795). Born Stanislaw Poniatowski, he was elected King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1764 partly due to the patronage of Empress Catherine of Russia, with whom he had enjoyed a very close friendship. Branicki had accompanied Stanislaw to St. Petersburg in 1762 and was party to the scheming necessary for the affair that ensued between Stanislaw and the Empress. During a later visit to St. Petersburg, Branicki met Alexandra Vasil'evna Englehardt, niece of the Empress' favourite Count Potemkin, and married her in 1781. Branicki trained as a soldier and fought in the Seven Years War (1756-1763). With the election of Stanislaw as King, Branicki was invested with the highest order of chivalry in Poland, The Order of the White Eagle, and was appointed as Great Crown Podstoli. He was sent as envoy to the court of King Frederick the Great in 1765 and was given other high appointments culminating in the office of Great Crown Hetman (leader of the army) in 1774. He held this post until 1794, when his opposition to reform and his support for the Russian suzerainty over the Polish Parliament resulted in a death sentence being passed against him. He fled Poland and travelled to Russia where he lived on the Russian estates given to him by the Empress Catharine.