CIRCA 1730

The use of tôle or lacquered tin in the creation of furniture and decorative objects was very fashionable in the 18th century, where it was employed as a substitute to the more expensive and rare oriental lacquer. Two pairs of gilt-japanned câche-pots of the same form and with closely-related decoration were formerly in the Wildenstein Collection, sold Christie's, London, 14 December 2005, lots 6 and 7 (£19,200 and £24,000); and another pair is in the musée Carnavalet, Paris (illustrated in Collection Henriette Bouvier, Paris, 1968, no. 20). A further pair of tôle seaux à bouteille, signed 'François Louis Dorez' is illustrated in J. Whitehead, The French Interior in the 18th Century, London, 1992, p. 192.