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Lot Essay
Adam Weisweiler, maître in 1778.
This beautiful console is of almost breathtaking simplicity and with a daring geometric complexity, its six legs intersecting with the dizzying interlacing lines of the stretcher, while a subtle three-tone effect is created by the ebony ground, the gold of the gilt-bronzes and the silver tone of the pewter-inlaid simulated fluting of the uprights, which seem to float in mid-air.
THE ATTRIBUTION
Although unsigned, it can really only be by one cabinet-maker, the supremely talented German-born ébéniste Adam Weisweiler, whose oeuvre epitomized the most sophisticated and refined work of the end of the ancien régime. The use of ebony combined with pewter inlay and distinctively interlaced stretcher seen on this console are specific leitmotifs of his work (for a series of pieces by Weisweiler with similar stretchers, see P. Lemonnier, Weisweiler, Paris, 1983, pp. 116-118). His oeuvre is also characterized by superb quality craftsmanship, both in terms of the materials used (his pieces always display the choicest cuts of timber) and in the cabinet-work which shows extreme precision, along with an ineffable sense of proportion and balance, so perfectly reflected in this table.
DOMINIQUE DAGUERRE
Weisweiler’s work is indelibly linked to the most innovative and fashionable marchand-mercier and tastemaker of the era, Dominique Daguerre, whose dazzling clientele not only included all the titled nobility of Paris and several members of the royal family including Marie-Antoinette, but the royal courts of Vienna, St. Petersburg, Naples and England, where the Prince of Wales became perhaps his single-most important client. Daguerre had moved his business to London following the French revolution and sold a significant part of his stock at Christie’s in 1791. The sale included a related table of less complex design with a specimen marble top as lot 40, described as ‘AN EBONY PIER TABLE, the top inlaid with fine and scarce specimens of marble colected in Italy, and richly mounted’. This can be identified with the table sold from the collection of Hubert de Givenchy, Christie’s, Monaco, 4 December 1994, lot 87 (FF2,109,000). It is tempting to suggest that the table offered here could be identified with lot 75 in the same sale, described as ‘an elegant ebony pier table with marble top, enriched with ormoulu’, but unfortunately the description is too vague to be certain. A further related ebony pier table with plain top of vert de mer is in the British Royal Collection, in the 1844 Room at Buckingham Palace (see H. Clifford-Smith, Buckingham Palace, Its Furniture, Decoration & History, London, 1931, p. 206).
The use of precious richly mottled Spanish brocatelle marble (in this case a panel of remarkable thinness) recurs frequently in pieces commissioned by Daguerre and made by Weisweiler, for instance on a related table de café sold Christie’s New York, 14-15 June 2016, lot 383 ($118,750), or on a pietra dura-mounted ebony secretaire sold from the collection of Dalva Brothers, Christie’s, New York, 31 October 2020, lot 65 ($1,134,000), leading to the conclusion that this was a particularly favored marble of this celebrated tastemaker. A further related console by Weisweiler, with similar interlaced stretcher and also with brocatelle marble top, formerly in the celebrated collection of the comte de Flahaut, was sold from a private collection, Christie's, Monaco, 5 December 1992, lot 28 (FF 1,087,800).
CHARLES DE BESTEGUI AND THE CHATEAU DE GROUSSAY
Charles de Beistegui (d.1970), the heir to a Mexican silver fortune, was one of the most celebrated society figures and taste-makers of the 20th century, and was equally famous for his legendary parties (such as the Labia Ball in Venice in 1951) as for the extraordinary interiors he created at his many residences. He bought the château de Groussay (originally built in 1815 for the Duchesse de Charost) in 1939. Beistegui had a flair for the theatrical and in collaboration with the celebrated Cuban-born architect Emilio Terry (1890-1969), and his assistant Michel Desbrosses, designed elaborately themed rooms and garden follies in a grand neoclassical style. The interiors of Groussay were noted for their sophisticated blend of understated neo-classical furniture, often in ebony (see also lot 65 in this sale, the pair of cabinets attributed to Levasseur) together with more grandiloquent pieces and contemporary furniture designed by Terry.
This beautiful console is of almost breathtaking simplicity and with a daring geometric complexity, its six legs intersecting with the dizzying interlacing lines of the stretcher, while a subtle three-tone effect is created by the ebony ground, the gold of the gilt-bronzes and the silver tone of the pewter-inlaid simulated fluting of the uprights, which seem to float in mid-air.
THE ATTRIBUTION
Although unsigned, it can really only be by one cabinet-maker, the supremely talented German-born ébéniste Adam Weisweiler, whose oeuvre epitomized the most sophisticated and refined work of the end of the ancien régime. The use of ebony combined with pewter inlay and distinctively interlaced stretcher seen on this console are specific leitmotifs of his work (for a series of pieces by Weisweiler with similar stretchers, see P. Lemonnier, Weisweiler, Paris, 1983, pp. 116-118). His oeuvre is also characterized by superb quality craftsmanship, both in terms of the materials used (his pieces always display the choicest cuts of timber) and in the cabinet-work which shows extreme precision, along with an ineffable sense of proportion and balance, so perfectly reflected in this table.
DOMINIQUE DAGUERRE
Weisweiler’s work is indelibly linked to the most innovative and fashionable marchand-mercier and tastemaker of the era, Dominique Daguerre, whose dazzling clientele not only included all the titled nobility of Paris and several members of the royal family including Marie-Antoinette, but the royal courts of Vienna, St. Petersburg, Naples and England, where the Prince of Wales became perhaps his single-most important client. Daguerre had moved his business to London following the French revolution and sold a significant part of his stock at Christie’s in 1791. The sale included a related table of less complex design with a specimen marble top as lot 40, described as ‘AN EBONY PIER TABLE, the top inlaid with fine and scarce specimens of marble colected in Italy, and richly mounted’. This can be identified with the table sold from the collection of Hubert de Givenchy, Christie’s, Monaco, 4 December 1994, lot 87 (FF2,109,000). It is tempting to suggest that the table offered here could be identified with lot 75 in the same sale, described as ‘an elegant ebony pier table with marble top, enriched with ormoulu’, but unfortunately the description is too vague to be certain. A further related ebony pier table with plain top of vert de mer is in the British Royal Collection, in the 1844 Room at Buckingham Palace (see H. Clifford-Smith, Buckingham Palace, Its Furniture, Decoration & History, London, 1931, p. 206).
The use of precious richly mottled Spanish brocatelle marble (in this case a panel of remarkable thinness) recurs frequently in pieces commissioned by Daguerre and made by Weisweiler, for instance on a related table de café sold Christie’s New York, 14-15 June 2016, lot 383 ($118,750), or on a pietra dura-mounted ebony secretaire sold from the collection of Dalva Brothers, Christie’s, New York, 31 October 2020, lot 65 ($1,134,000), leading to the conclusion that this was a particularly favored marble of this celebrated tastemaker. A further related console by Weisweiler, with similar interlaced stretcher and also with brocatelle marble top, formerly in the celebrated collection of the comte de Flahaut, was sold from a private collection, Christie's, Monaco, 5 December 1992, lot 28 (FF 1,087,800).
CHARLES DE BESTEGUI AND THE CHATEAU DE GROUSSAY
Charles de Beistegui (d.1970), the heir to a Mexican silver fortune, was one of the most celebrated society figures and taste-makers of the 20th century, and was equally famous for his legendary parties (such as the Labia Ball in Venice in 1951) as for the extraordinary interiors he created at his many residences. He bought the château de Groussay (originally built in 1815 for the Duchesse de Charost) in 1939. Beistegui had a flair for the theatrical and in collaboration with the celebrated Cuban-born architect Emilio Terry (1890-1969), and his assistant Michel Desbrosses, designed elaborately themed rooms and garden follies in a grand neoclassical style. The interiors of Groussay were noted for their sophisticated blend of understated neo-classical furniture, often in ebony (see also lot 65 in this sale, the pair of cabinets attributed to Levasseur) together with more grandiloquent pieces and contemporary furniture designed by Terry.