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Lot Essay
On 3 June 1769, the second transit of the planet Venus across the sun took place, a rare astronomical event that was observed by the French court from the terraces of the Château de Saint-Hubert. Louis XV himself explained the phenomenon to Madame du Barry, lending her his telescope (see Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide and Jeffrey Munger, The Wrightsman Galleries for French Decorative Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2010, p. 78).
Lorgnettes were produced at Vincennes and then at Sèvres in a variety of sizes, to be assembled by the Paris marchands-merciers. However, surviving examples are rare and this one is among the most precious, luxuriously mounted in very finely chased gold. An ivory-mounted spyglass, dated 1757, and decorated with green ribbon trelliswork enclosing flowers, is held at the Louvre Museum, Paris, inv. OA 7856; see Madame de Pompadour et les arts, Exhibition Catalogue, musée national des châteaux de Versailles et du Trianon, February - May 2002, Paris, 2002, p. 462. Another brass-mounted example in the Wrightsman Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, is painted with a terrace of flowers and is illustrated by Carl C. Dauterman, The Wrightsman Collection Porcelain, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1970, Vol. IV, no. 90. A bleu céleste ground spyglass was sold at Christie's, New York, 21 October 1997, lot 168. See Marcelle Brunet and Tamara Préaud, Sèvres des origines à nos jours, Paris, 1978, no. 95 for a discussion of the above-mentioned examples and others.
The records of the marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux note the sale of several spyglasses including one to Madame de Pompadour on 22 December 1756 for 180 livres: 'une lorgnette de Vincennes garnie d'or' (a Vincennes spyglass mounted in gold), and another to the Duchesse de Mazarin in December 1757.
Lorgnettes were produced at Vincennes and then at Sèvres in a variety of sizes, to be assembled by the Paris marchands-merciers. However, surviving examples are rare and this one is among the most precious, luxuriously mounted in very finely chased gold. An ivory-mounted spyglass, dated 1757, and decorated with green ribbon trelliswork enclosing flowers, is held at the Louvre Museum, Paris, inv. OA 7856; see Madame de Pompadour et les arts, Exhibition Catalogue, musée national des châteaux de Versailles et du Trianon, February - May 2002, Paris, 2002, p. 462. Another brass-mounted example in the Wrightsman Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, is painted with a terrace of flowers and is illustrated by Carl C. Dauterman, The Wrightsman Collection Porcelain, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1970, Vol. IV, no. 90. A bleu céleste ground spyglass was sold at Christie's, New York, 21 October 1997, lot 168. See Marcelle Brunet and Tamara Préaud, Sèvres des origines à nos jours, Paris, 1978, no. 95 for a discussion of the above-mentioned examples and others.
The records of the marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux note the sale of several spyglasses including one to Madame de Pompadour on 22 December 1756 for 180 livres: 'une lorgnette de Vincennes garnie d'or' (a Vincennes spyglass mounted in gold), and another to the Duchesse de Mazarin in December 1757.