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Lot Essay
Jean Boucault, maître in 1728.
This important fauteuil by Jean Boucault was delivered in 1783 to Versailles for the appartement of the Baron de Breteuil, Secrétaire d’Etat à la Maison du Roi. It bears the fire crowned brand ‘W’ which was applied on furniture supplied for the château de Versailles by the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne (Royal wardrobe).
Based on Christian Baulez' extensive research (cat. Steinitz, Paris, 2016, pp. 306-313), the history of this Royal fauteuil has been fully traced. It was part of a larger set supplied by the tapissier ordinaire du Roi Claude-François Capin for the use of Louis XVI’s newly appointed minister: Louis-Charles-Auguste Le Tonnelier, baron de Breteuil (1730-1807). The fauteuil and its suite was placed on the first floor of the North wing of the château, the so-called aile des Ministres, in the apartment which had been previously occupied and decorated twenty years earlier by duc de Choiseul. It is plausible that the set, as suggested by M. Baulez, was acquired for Breteuil directly from Choiseul.
The ensemble formerly comprised: ‘un meuble de lampas composé d’une tapisserie avec bordure, d’un grand canapé en confident, d’un tête-à-tête à carreau, de deux bergères à la reine, de six fauteuils, de quatre chaises, de quatre rideaux en huit parties de lampas’, estimated 23 350 livres (Arch. Nat. O1 3534).
The set was subsequently extended with further seats as indicated in the 1793 Versailles’ inventory, and sold during the Revolutionary sales to citoyen Gastinel on the 5672 auction day on the 25 November 1793 for 1610 livres (Arch. Yvelines, II Q 71). The set was then dispersed in various collections and a large group reappeared in 1885 in the collection sale of comte Jacques de la Béraudière, lot 902 : ‘un beau meuble de salon du temps de Louis XVI, en bois sculpté et doré, à feuilles et perles et à pieds cannelés en spirale. Il est couvert de lampas du temps à fleurs blanches sur fond ponceau et se compose d’un grand canapé cintré avec siège aux angles, de deux marquises et de quatre chaises. Chaque siège est formé d’un coussin rapporté et le canapé d’un rouleau et de deux coussins. Les bois portent comme marque le nom frappé de I. Boucault et un W surmonté d’une couronne brûlé au fer’.
Several seats from this set have survived and are now recorded in public and private collections:
- two marquises sold at Galerie Charpentier, 6 April 1954: one currently in the château de Versailles (inv. Vmb. 14357), the other belongs to the Fondation F. Bemberg.
- J. Paul Getty acquired in 1971 two of the four chaises from the set which are now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (sold from the Anna Thomson Dodge collection, Christie’s, New York, 24 June 1971, lot 65; Getty Museum inv. 71.DA.92). Another chair is in the Nelson-Atkins Museum Kansas City (inv. 32-191/10).
- a pair of bergères was sold from the Juan de Beistegui collection at Christie’s, Paris, 10 September 2018, lot 71.
A 19th century chauffeuse modelled after the Breteuil Boucault suite was sold from the collection of Hubert de Givenchy, Christie’s, Paris, 16 June 2022, lot 159.
Jean Boucault, maître in 1728.
This important fauteuil by Jean Boucault was delivered in 1783 to Versailles for the appartement of the Baron de Breteuil, Secrétaire d’Etat à la Maison du Roi. It bears the fire crowned brand ‘W’ which was applied on furniture supplied for the château de Versailles by the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne (Royal wardrobe).
Based on Christian Baulez' extensive research (cat. Steinitz, Paris, 2016, pp. 306-313), the history of this Royal fauteuil has been fully traced. It was part of a larger set supplied by the tapissier ordinaire du Roi Claude-François Capin for the use of Louis XVI’s newly appointed minister: Louis-Charles-Auguste Le Tonnelier, baron de Breteuil (1730-1807). The fauteuil and its suite was placed on the first floor of the North wing of the château, the so-called aile des Ministres, in the apartment which had been previously occupied and decorated twenty years earlier by duc de Choiseul. It is plausible that the set, as suggested by M. Baulez, was acquired for Breteuil directly from Choiseul.
The ensemble formerly comprised: ‘un meuble de lampas composé d’une tapisserie avec bordure, d’un grand canapé en confident, d’un tête-à-tête à carreau, de deux bergères à la reine, de six fauteuils, de quatre chaises, de quatre rideaux en huit parties de lampas’, estimated 23 350 livres (Arch. Nat. O1 3534).
The set was subsequently extended with further seats as indicated in the 1793 Versailles’ inventory, and sold during the Revolutionary sales to citoyen Gastinel on the 5672 auction day on the 25 November 1793 for 1610 livres (Arch. Yvelines, II Q 71). The set was then dispersed in various collections and a large group reappeared in 1885 in the collection sale of comte Jacques de la Béraudière, lot 902 : ‘un beau meuble de salon du temps de Louis XVI, en bois sculpté et doré, à feuilles et perles et à pieds cannelés en spirale. Il est couvert de lampas du temps à fleurs blanches sur fond ponceau et se compose d’un grand canapé cintré avec siège aux angles, de deux marquises et de quatre chaises. Chaque siège est formé d’un coussin rapporté et le canapé d’un rouleau et de deux coussins. Les bois portent comme marque le nom frappé de I. Boucault et un W surmonté d’une couronne brûlé au fer’.
Several seats from this set have survived and are now recorded in public and private collections:
- two marquises sold at Galerie Charpentier, 6 April 1954: one currently in the château de Versailles (inv. Vmb. 14357), the other belongs to the Fondation F. Bemberg.
- J. Paul Getty acquired in 1971 two of the four chaises from the set which are now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (sold from the Anna Thomson Dodge collection, Christie’s, New York, 24 June 1971, lot 65; Getty Museum inv. 71.DA.92). Another chair is in the Nelson-Atkins Museum Kansas City (inv. 32-191/10).
- a pair of bergères was sold from the Juan de Beistegui collection at Christie’s, Paris, 10 September 2018, lot 71.
A 19th century chauffeuse modelled after the Breteuil Boucault suite was sold from the collection of Hubert de Givenchy, Christie’s, Paris, 16 June 2022, lot 159.