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Lot Essay
With its finely chased mounts and contrasting veneers harmoniously united, this armoire can be firmly attributed to Charles Cressent Cressent (marchand-ébéniste and sculpteur, 1685-1768).
One of the foremost ébénistes of the Régence period and following years, Charles Cressent is often seen as the ‘successor’ of ébéniste-du-Roi André-Charles Boulle (d. 1732), also exercising full control over the ébénisterie and the production of gilt-bronze mounts. This equilibrium of production is demonstrated by the present lot and the related pair of armoires formerly in the collection of monsieur de Selle, now in the Louvre (inv. no. OA 10583, op. cit. Pradère, illustrated cat. nos. 7-8, pp. 91 & 258).
The attribution of this armoire to Charles Cressent is indubitably supported not only by the amaranth veneers, complex lock mechanism, and general form, but also by several gilt-bronze mounts which occur in Cressent’s documented oeuvre. The armoire shares mounts in common, including the frames to the top of the doors, with the celebrated armoires in the musée du Louvre (OA 10582-3). The Louvre armoires were sold in 1761 from the collection of monsieur de Selle as lot 148 in a section entitled ‘Ouvrages du sieur Cressent, Ebeniste de feu Monseigneur le Duc d’Orléans Régent’ thereby unambiguously attributing them and the wider corpus of armoires to which the present lot belongs, to Cressent.
Cressent employed this model in several variations and a number of related examples are known. This includes a very closely related example sold Sotheby’s London, 20th June 1985, lot 11 and subsequently with Semenzatto, Venice in 1992, of almost identical height (227 cm.), with similar form, veneered doors with similar border mounts, and identical mounts surrounding the central raised circle of each door. A further almost identical piece, with the upper panels to the doors originally glazed, was formerly in the collection of Georges Heine, sold Palais Galliera, Paris, 23 March 1971, lot 99 and then with Galerie Kugel. Further very closely related armoire bookcases with open upper or glazed upper panels to the doors and identical mounts to the uprights, borders of the door panels, central circle to the doors, and to top of the doors are illustrated, alongside the present lot, in A. Pradère, Charles Cressent, sculpteur, ébéniste du Régent Dijon, 2003, p.258 cat. 9-10-11-12. These armoires are all very close in size and are all veneered in amaranth, a distinctive timber that is characteristic of Cressent’s ébénisterie.
As evidenced by the named reference to him in the 1761 de Selle catalogue, a practice reserved for only the most revered maîtres, Cressent was highly regarded and widely known to collectors within even his own lifetime. This renown has endured up until the present day and works by Cressent, including the present lot, have featured in some of the greatest collections in history. In the second half of the 19th century the armoire was in the collection of Baron Achille Seillière at the château de Mello in the Oise. One of the foremost collectors of the late 19th century, Seillière was a banker, financier and railway magnate who was instrumental in the establishment of the institutions Crédit mobilier and la Banque de France. Assembled at Mello, his collection contained pieces by the great masters of the decorative arts including furniture by Cressent, Boulle and Riesener, enamels by Léonard Limosin and maiolica by Della Robbia. Many of these pieces had been acquired by Seillière at the collection sales of renowned names such as Pourtalès, Fould, or Demidoff. The château de Mello consisted of two separate châteaux adjacent to each other, one an ancient seat of the Montmorency family and the other conceived for Seillière in 1871 by Hippolyte Destailleur, a favoured architect of the 19th century elite and particularly the Rothschild family, for whom he built Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire and the Palais Albert de Rothschild in Vienna.
At the baron’s sale in 1890 the armoire was acquired by Rodolphe Kann (1845–1905), a banker and mining magnate who would go on to become one of his generation’s most prolific collectors. Kann had discerning taste and a keen eye for rare masterpieces ranging from 18th century French furniture and objects to old master paintings. Kann's collection was displayed in his house on the Avenue d'Iéna in Paris; doors on the second floor connected the house to the adjoining one belonging to Kann's brother, Maurice Kann, also an important collector. After Rodolphe Kann's death his collection, which had been inherited by his two sons, was sold en bloc in August 1907 for almost £900,000 to Duveen Brothers, who opened the Kann house in Paris to important clients. Some fifteen years after Kann’s death the house was purchased by Calouste Gulbenkian, another great collector who had a number of pieces from the Kann collection and who, no doubt inspired by his predecessor, would go on to acquire some of the most important pieces of Cressent’s oeuvre, currently preserved today in the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.
With the exception of the de Selle armoires and the armoires aux saisons in the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, it is difficult to identify this corpus of armoires or bookcases in 18th century sale catalogues. Armoires of smaller dimensions attributed to Cressent and documented in 18th century sales include those sold in the Bonner de La Mosson sale of 1744 as lot 941 and the sale of Boileau père on 4 March 1782 as lot 306 and a large bookcase was sold in the Dennery sale on 11 December 1786, lot 240. Vague references to armoires with descriptions that match that of the present lot are however recorded in the weekly gazette Annonces Affiches et Avis divers, including one on 22 June 1772 of a sale of ‘7 armoires de bois d’amarante, chez M Dupont, r de Richelieu, horloger du roi.’
Charles Cressent is indisputably the most representative cabinetmaker of the Régence period, when instead of marquetry, fashion started to turn to furniture finished with relatively simple wood veneers, fitted with ormolu mounts of increasingly sculptural quality and splendour. In this new style, Cressent stood alone, his early training as a sculptor being evident in the originality and quality of the mounts which he produced. He became master sculptor in 1719 and a member of the Academy of Saint-Luc. He is recorded as both sculpteur and ébéniste to the duc d'Orléans, and he was constantly in difficulties with the guild of fondeurs and doreurs because, in contravention of the guild rules, he chased and gilded bronzes in his own workshop. In many instances he had even supplied models which he had created himself to the casters of his bronzes. His defence against this was that it enabled him to supervise the quality of the work and to prevent unauthorized copies being made; it has to be said that his defiance of the guild regulations has left a legacy of ormolu mounts of unparalleled distinction.
We would like to thank Alexandre Pradère for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.
One of the foremost ébénistes of the Régence period and following years, Charles Cressent is often seen as the ‘successor’ of ébéniste-du-Roi André-Charles Boulle (d. 1732), also exercising full control over the ébénisterie and the production of gilt-bronze mounts. This equilibrium of production is demonstrated by the present lot and the related pair of armoires formerly in the collection of monsieur de Selle, now in the Louvre (inv. no. OA 10583, op. cit. Pradère, illustrated cat. nos. 7-8, pp. 91 & 258).
The attribution of this armoire to Charles Cressent is indubitably supported not only by the amaranth veneers, complex lock mechanism, and general form, but also by several gilt-bronze mounts which occur in Cressent’s documented oeuvre. The armoire shares mounts in common, including the frames to the top of the doors, with the celebrated armoires in the musée du Louvre (OA 10582-3). The Louvre armoires were sold in 1761 from the collection of monsieur de Selle as lot 148 in a section entitled ‘Ouvrages du sieur Cressent, Ebeniste de feu Monseigneur le Duc d’Orléans Régent’ thereby unambiguously attributing them and the wider corpus of armoires to which the present lot belongs, to Cressent.
Cressent employed this model in several variations and a number of related examples are known. This includes a very closely related example sold Sotheby’s London, 20th June 1985, lot 11 and subsequently with Semenzatto, Venice in 1992, of almost identical height (227 cm.), with similar form, veneered doors with similar border mounts, and identical mounts surrounding the central raised circle of each door. A further almost identical piece, with the upper panels to the doors originally glazed, was formerly in the collection of Georges Heine, sold Palais Galliera, Paris, 23 March 1971, lot 99 and then with Galerie Kugel. Further very closely related armoire bookcases with open upper or glazed upper panels to the doors and identical mounts to the uprights, borders of the door panels, central circle to the doors, and to top of the doors are illustrated, alongside the present lot, in A. Pradère, Charles Cressent, sculpteur, ébéniste du Régent Dijon, 2003, p.258 cat. 9-10-11-12. These armoires are all very close in size and are all veneered in amaranth, a distinctive timber that is characteristic of Cressent’s ébénisterie.
As evidenced by the named reference to him in the 1761 de Selle catalogue, a practice reserved for only the most revered maîtres, Cressent was highly regarded and widely known to collectors within even his own lifetime. This renown has endured up until the present day and works by Cressent, including the present lot, have featured in some of the greatest collections in history. In the second half of the 19th century the armoire was in the collection of Baron Achille Seillière at the château de Mello in the Oise. One of the foremost collectors of the late 19th century, Seillière was a banker, financier and railway magnate who was instrumental in the establishment of the institutions Crédit mobilier and la Banque de France. Assembled at Mello, his collection contained pieces by the great masters of the decorative arts including furniture by Cressent, Boulle and Riesener, enamels by Léonard Limosin and maiolica by Della Robbia. Many of these pieces had been acquired by Seillière at the collection sales of renowned names such as Pourtalès, Fould, or Demidoff. The château de Mello consisted of two separate châteaux adjacent to each other, one an ancient seat of the Montmorency family and the other conceived for Seillière in 1871 by Hippolyte Destailleur, a favoured architect of the 19th century elite and particularly the Rothschild family, for whom he built Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire and the Palais Albert de Rothschild in Vienna.
At the baron’s sale in 1890 the armoire was acquired by Rodolphe Kann (1845–1905), a banker and mining magnate who would go on to become one of his generation’s most prolific collectors. Kann had discerning taste and a keen eye for rare masterpieces ranging from 18th century French furniture and objects to old master paintings. Kann's collection was displayed in his house on the Avenue d'Iéna in Paris; doors on the second floor connected the house to the adjoining one belonging to Kann's brother, Maurice Kann, also an important collector. After Rodolphe Kann's death his collection, which had been inherited by his two sons, was sold en bloc in August 1907 for almost £900,000 to Duveen Brothers, who opened the Kann house in Paris to important clients. Some fifteen years after Kann’s death the house was purchased by Calouste Gulbenkian, another great collector who had a number of pieces from the Kann collection and who, no doubt inspired by his predecessor, would go on to acquire some of the most important pieces of Cressent’s oeuvre, currently preserved today in the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.
With the exception of the de Selle armoires and the armoires aux saisons in the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, it is difficult to identify this corpus of armoires or bookcases in 18th century sale catalogues. Armoires of smaller dimensions attributed to Cressent and documented in 18th century sales include those sold in the Bonner de La Mosson sale of 1744 as lot 941 and the sale of Boileau père on 4 March 1782 as lot 306 and a large bookcase was sold in the Dennery sale on 11 December 1786, lot 240. Vague references to armoires with descriptions that match that of the present lot are however recorded in the weekly gazette Annonces Affiches et Avis divers, including one on 22 June 1772 of a sale of ‘7 armoires de bois d’amarante, chez M Dupont, r de Richelieu, horloger du roi.’
Charles Cressent is indisputably the most representative cabinetmaker of the Régence period, when instead of marquetry, fashion started to turn to furniture finished with relatively simple wood veneers, fitted with ormolu mounts of increasingly sculptural quality and splendour. In this new style, Cressent stood alone, his early training as a sculptor being evident in the originality and quality of the mounts which he produced. He became master sculptor in 1719 and a member of the Academy of Saint-Luc. He is recorded as both sculpteur and ébéniste to the duc d'Orléans, and he was constantly in difficulties with the guild of fondeurs and doreurs because, in contravention of the guild rules, he chased and gilded bronzes in his own workshop. In many instances he had even supplied models which he had created himself to the casters of his bronzes. His defence against this was that it enabled him to supervise the quality of the work and to prevent unauthorized copies being made; it has to be said that his defiance of the guild regulations has left a legacy of ormolu mounts of unparalleled distinction.
We would like to thank Alexandre Pradère for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.