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Lot Essay
THE ATTRIBUTION TO JACQUES CAFFIERI
These boldly sculptural chenets, conceived as a triton and nereid riding seahorses amid dynamic scrolls, rockwork and rocaille, are attributed to the sculpteur, fondeur et ciseleur du roi Jacques Caffieri (1678-1755), perhaps the greatest bronzier of the Rococo period. The mark of Caffieri is apparent not only in their highly ambitious scale—his workshop was among the few in the first decades of the eighteenth century with the technical ability to produce ormolu works of these proportions—but also in their characteristically inventive, audacious curves and vigorous asymmetry. They may relate to a pair of chenets by Caffieri in the Wallace Collection, London (inv. nos. F107 and F108), where also are preserved some of the magnificent bronzes d'ameublement supplied to Madame Infante, Louis XV's eldest daughter, to furnish the Palazzo at Colorno following her marriage to the Duke of Parma, a commission synonymous with Caffieri's elite status among bronziers (inv. nos. F83 and F84).
The present chenets are not signed, but are identical in key areas to a pair signed by Caffieri and sold from the collection of Mme. Louis Burat, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 17-18 June 1937, lot 93. While the overall compositions of the two pairs of chenets differ (the triton and nereid on Madame Burat's chenets do not ride seahorses, but instead recline on large shells) the modeling of the figures from the waist up is identical. It was common practice for bronziers of the eighteenth century to retain models called poupées for figures and animals, allowing their workshops to reuse figures without having to sculpt anew. The same figures can thus appear multiple times, and in various configurations, in different products from the same atelier. A design drawing for the male chenet from the collection of Lodewijk Houthakker, Amsterdam, may be in Caffieri’s hand. The drawing was previously attributed by Peter Fuhring to Caffieri’s contemporary, the sculptor Lambert-Sigisbert Adam (1700-1759), but Fuhring was unaware of Caffieri’s chenets in Mme. Burat’s collection at the time of this attribution, and could not have used them as evidence (see P. Fuhring, Drawings for Architecture and Ornament: the Lodewijk Houthakker Collection, I, pp. 366 and 373, cat. no. 581). Of curious nature are the repeated crowned ‘C’ stamps throughout, added later in imitation of the 'C' couronné poinçon used between 1745 and 1749. The C stamp found on French bronzes was once believed to be a personal signature of Caffieri himself, and it may be possible that whoever applied them to the present chenets may have intended to emphasize an association with Caffieri as their creator.
Nothing is known of the chenets’ history before 1996, though their ambitious scale and apparently unique model suggest that they were a special commission. Their maritime subject, emblematic of the mythology and riches of the sea, suggests an admiral or other high-ranking officer of the navy as a possible patron. Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, comte de Toulouse (1683-1737) and grand amiral de France was proposed as a possible candidate, with the chenets therefore being associated with a pair recorded in successive inventories of the galerie dorée at the hôtel de Toulouse. These were described in the 1744 inventory as une grande et forte grille de fer à quatre branches garnie de deux figures de Fleuve et de Rivière de cuivre doré d'or moulu, and in 1793 as une grande et forte grille de feu à quatre branches de fer ornés de deux figures de cuivre doré d'or moulu, l'un représentant l'Océan et l'autre Thétis. This hypothesis is likely not to be correct, however, as the iconography typically used for Oceanus and Tethys, though maritime in theme, does not correspond with the figures on the present lot. Furthermore, the chenets in galerie dorée would most likely have been delivered circa 1720, when François-Antoine Vassé provided its decoration. The chenets could have been commissioned for another room in the hôtel of the grand amiral, or just as possibly for any number of other collectors associated the navy, including Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, comte de Maurepas, who served as its ministre from 1723 to 1749, and Florent-Marcellin de Selle and his son, Marcellin-François-Zacharie de Selle, who successively served as trésorier général de la Marine. Although household inventories for these figures are preserved and record chenets in their collections, the text typically does not offer enough description to allow positive identification of the present pair.
These boldly sculptural chenets, conceived as a triton and nereid riding seahorses amid dynamic scrolls, rockwork and rocaille, are attributed to the sculpteur, fondeur et ciseleur du roi Jacques Caffieri (1678-1755), perhaps the greatest bronzier of the Rococo period. The mark of Caffieri is apparent not only in their highly ambitious scale—his workshop was among the few in the first decades of the eighteenth century with the technical ability to produce ormolu works of these proportions—but also in their characteristically inventive, audacious curves and vigorous asymmetry. They may relate to a pair of chenets by Caffieri in the Wallace Collection, London (inv. nos. F107 and F108), where also are preserved some of the magnificent bronzes d'ameublement supplied to Madame Infante, Louis XV's eldest daughter, to furnish the Palazzo at Colorno following her marriage to the Duke of Parma, a commission synonymous with Caffieri's elite status among bronziers (inv. nos. F83 and F84).
The present chenets are not signed, but are identical in key areas to a pair signed by Caffieri and sold from the collection of Mme. Louis Burat, Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 17-18 June 1937, lot 93. While the overall compositions of the two pairs of chenets differ (the triton and nereid on Madame Burat's chenets do not ride seahorses, but instead recline on large shells) the modeling of the figures from the waist up is identical. It was common practice for bronziers of the eighteenth century to retain models called poupées for figures and animals, allowing their workshops to reuse figures without having to sculpt anew. The same figures can thus appear multiple times, and in various configurations, in different products from the same atelier. A design drawing for the male chenet from the collection of Lodewijk Houthakker, Amsterdam, may be in Caffieri’s hand. The drawing was previously attributed by Peter Fuhring to Caffieri’s contemporary, the sculptor Lambert-Sigisbert Adam (1700-1759), but Fuhring was unaware of Caffieri’s chenets in Mme. Burat’s collection at the time of this attribution, and could not have used them as evidence (see P. Fuhring, Drawings for Architecture and Ornament: the Lodewijk Houthakker Collection, I, pp. 366 and 373, cat. no. 581). Of curious nature are the repeated crowned ‘C’ stamps throughout, added later in imitation of the 'C' couronné poinçon used between 1745 and 1749. The C stamp found on French bronzes was once believed to be a personal signature of Caffieri himself, and it may be possible that whoever applied them to the present chenets may have intended to emphasize an association with Caffieri as their creator.
Nothing is known of the chenets’ history before 1996, though their ambitious scale and apparently unique model suggest that they were a special commission. Their maritime subject, emblematic of the mythology and riches of the sea, suggests an admiral or other high-ranking officer of the navy as a possible patron. Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, comte de Toulouse (1683-1737) and grand amiral de France was proposed as a possible candidate, with the chenets therefore being associated with a pair recorded in successive inventories of the galerie dorée at the hôtel de Toulouse. These were described in the 1744 inventory as une grande et forte grille de fer à quatre branches garnie de deux figures de Fleuve et de Rivière de cuivre doré d'or moulu, and in 1793 as une grande et forte grille de feu à quatre branches de fer ornés de deux figures de cuivre doré d'or moulu, l'un représentant l'Océan et l'autre Thétis. This hypothesis is likely not to be correct, however, as the iconography typically used for Oceanus and Tethys, though maritime in theme, does not correspond with the figures on the present lot. Furthermore, the chenets in galerie dorée would most likely have been delivered circa 1720, when François-Antoine Vassé provided its decoration. The chenets could have been commissioned for another room in the hôtel of the grand amiral, or just as possibly for any number of other collectors associated the navy, including Jean-Frédéric Phélypeaux, comte de Maurepas, who served as its ministre from 1723 to 1749, and Florent-Marcellin de Selle and his son, Marcellin-François-Zacharie de Selle, who successively served as trésorier général de la Marine. Although household inventories for these figures are preserved and record chenets in their collections, the text typically does not offer enough description to allow positive identification of the present pair.