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Lot Essay
The 'C' couronné poinçon was a tax mark employed on any alloy containing copper between March 1745 and February 1749.
During the French rococo period of the 18th century fashionable ormolu chenets were elaborate and expressive, and their very nature as a pair made them a perfect canvas for depictions of duality. While each element is grounded in an elegant and fluid stairwell, one server ascends with a full tray of drinks while the other descends with a tray now emptied of its libations. The figures themselves explore the fashion for 'Chinoiserie', which dates to the seventeenth century, when European travelers brought back tales and engravings of the exotic sights they had seen in the 'Orient'. While the man in descent is dressed in the typical mode du jour, the man ascending sports a turban, a sash around his waist and Eastern features. Taken as a pair, these chenets thus imply a worldliness and enlightenment for their owner.
The sinuous rocaille stairs with a pierced baluster visible on the present chenets are reminiscent of the oeuvre of Jacques Caffieri and are similar to those cast on the base of the so-called bouquet de la Dauphine commissioned by Maria Josepha of Saxony, Dauphine of France, now at Zwinger Dresden (illustrated in P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1987, p. 27). Interestingly, a number of chenets with human figures (Arlequin & Columbine, hunters, children, Chinoiserie, god and godesses etc) are listed in the inventories made after the deaths of the celebrated bronzier Jacques Caffiéri and of the wife of Philippe Caffiéri (dated 1755 and 1770 respectively).
During the French rococo period of the 18th century fashionable ormolu chenets were elaborate and expressive, and their very nature as a pair made them a perfect canvas for depictions of duality. While each element is grounded in an elegant and fluid stairwell, one server ascends with a full tray of drinks while the other descends with a tray now emptied of its libations. The figures themselves explore the fashion for 'Chinoiserie', which dates to the seventeenth century, when European travelers brought back tales and engravings of the exotic sights they had seen in the 'Orient'. While the man in descent is dressed in the typical mode du jour, the man ascending sports a turban, a sash around his waist and Eastern features. Taken as a pair, these chenets thus imply a worldliness and enlightenment for their owner.
The sinuous rocaille stairs with a pierced baluster visible on the present chenets are reminiscent of the oeuvre of Jacques Caffieri and are similar to those cast on the base of the so-called bouquet de la Dauphine commissioned by Maria Josepha of Saxony, Dauphine of France, now at Zwinger Dresden (illustrated in P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1987, p. 27). Interestingly, a number of chenets with human figures (Arlequin & Columbine, hunters, children, Chinoiserie, god and godesses etc) are listed in the inventories made after the deaths of the celebrated bronzier Jacques Caffiéri and of the wife of Philippe Caffiéri (dated 1755 and 1770 respectively).