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Lot Essay
THE LACQUERED FURNITURE OF JACQUES DUBOIS
With its graceful lines and glittering lacquer panels, this jewel-like bureau de dame exemplifies the oeuvre of Jacques Dubois (1694-1764, maître in 1742). Relatively little is known about Jacques Dubois’s life, except that he was the half-brother of Noël Gérard, considered one of the most important Parisian ébénistes of the Régence period, in whose workshop it is assumed that he trained. Established in the rue de Charenton, Dubois enjoyed the privilèges of an ouvrier libre and was thus unfettered by the strict guild regulations endured by his fellow ébénistes. He achieved his maîtrise relatively late in life, was elected a juré of the guild and then died suddenly in 1763 having been appointed Jean-François Oeben’s replacement. Study of the inventory after his death reveals that Dubois oversaw a large workshop with twelve workbenches as well as a shop, and the varied list of furniture in his workshop at the time demonstrates his talents were not just in one form. He is known to have developed close relationships with the marchands-merciers Antoine-Nicolas-Joseph Bertin and Pierre Migeon II and this desk, with its superb Japanese lacquer decoration, would almost certainly have been commissioned through the intervention of one of these fashionable dealers (A. Pradère, French Furniture Makers, Paris, 1989, p. 171).
Despite the variety of forms produced by Dubois, it does appear that he made a specialty of exotic materials, being best known for his use of Asian lacquer to enrich commodes, bureaux and encoignures, in particular a small group of commodes decorated completely with Chinese lacquer and richly adorned with scrolling foliate mounts in the form of a cartouche border. His masterpiece is considered to be an impressive encoignure with a tiered superstructure surmounted by an ormolu clock, ordered by the marchand-mercier Lullier of Warsaw in 1753 for Count Klemens Brenicki (1689-1772), later owned by Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild and now in the J. Paul Getty Museum (obj. no. 78.DA.119).
A number of lacquered pieces were acquired by Madame de Pompadour, including in 1755 a bureau en pente for the château de Choisy, most recently sold Christie’s, London, 13 November 2019, lot 110 (£1,871,250). Of similar style and scale is that sold Christie’s, London, 23 May 2018, lot 211 (£175,000). These three examples, all stamped by Dubois, are all executed with a red japanned interior like the Aitken and Pompadour bureaux, creating a striking contrast with the Japanese lacquer exterior.
THE PAUL DUTASTA PROVENANCE
The present desk cabinet once formed part of the extensive and important collection of Paul Eugène Dutasta (1873-1926), French statesman and politician, until sold in Paris in June 1926. Dutasta held the position of French Ambassador in Switzerland between 1918 and 1920 and was elected ‘Secrétaire Général de la Conférence de la Paix’ in Paris after the war in 1919. He acted as representative of the Swiss authorities to Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau and the Allied Powers, and participated in negotiations which led to the drafting of article 435 of the Traité de Versailles which acknowledged the neutrality of Switzerland.
THE WALTERS COLLECTION
Although Sarah 'Sadie' Wharton Green Walters (1859-1943) did not marry the noted American railroad magnate, yachtsman, art collector and philanthropist Henry Walters (1848-1931) until 1922, she and her first husband, Pembroke Jones, had lived with Henry as a close friend since the turn of the century, traveling the world and assembling a magnificent art collection. With the death of his father in 1894, Henry Walters inherited the core of the collection that survives today as the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. Henry added to it, housing it in a purpose-built Renaissance style mansion in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore and opening it to the public in 1909 as the Walters Art Gallery. Upon his death in 1931, the house and contents were bequeathed to the City of Baltimore. As Henry’s younger widow, Sadie continued the family tradition of buying art and antiques, her taste running to eighteenth-century French decorative arts. In 1941, an eight-day two-part single owner sale was held at Parke-Bernet Galleries in New York, to disperse the bulk of her collection. The sale ran to a total of 1,456 lots, with the present vase offered as lot 679.
With its graceful lines and glittering lacquer panels, this jewel-like bureau de dame exemplifies the oeuvre of Jacques Dubois (1694-1764, maître in 1742). Relatively little is known about Jacques Dubois’s life, except that he was the half-brother of Noël Gérard, considered one of the most important Parisian ébénistes of the Régence period, in whose workshop it is assumed that he trained. Established in the rue de Charenton, Dubois enjoyed the privilèges of an ouvrier libre and was thus unfettered by the strict guild regulations endured by his fellow ébénistes. He achieved his maîtrise relatively late in life, was elected a juré of the guild and then died suddenly in 1763 having been appointed Jean-François Oeben’s replacement. Study of the inventory after his death reveals that Dubois oversaw a large workshop with twelve workbenches as well as a shop, and the varied list of furniture in his workshop at the time demonstrates his talents were not just in one form. He is known to have developed close relationships with the marchands-merciers Antoine-Nicolas-Joseph Bertin and Pierre Migeon II and this desk, with its superb Japanese lacquer decoration, would almost certainly have been commissioned through the intervention of one of these fashionable dealers (A. Pradère, French Furniture Makers, Paris, 1989, p. 171).
Despite the variety of forms produced by Dubois, it does appear that he made a specialty of exotic materials, being best known for his use of Asian lacquer to enrich commodes, bureaux and encoignures, in particular a small group of commodes decorated completely with Chinese lacquer and richly adorned with scrolling foliate mounts in the form of a cartouche border. His masterpiece is considered to be an impressive encoignure with a tiered superstructure surmounted by an ormolu clock, ordered by the marchand-mercier Lullier of Warsaw in 1753 for Count Klemens Brenicki (1689-1772), later owned by Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild and now in the J. Paul Getty Museum (obj. no. 78.DA.119).
A number of lacquered pieces were acquired by Madame de Pompadour, including in 1755 a bureau en pente for the château de Choisy, most recently sold Christie’s, London, 13 November 2019, lot 110 (£1,871,250). Of similar style and scale is that sold Christie’s, London, 23 May 2018, lot 211 (£175,000). These three examples, all stamped by Dubois, are all executed with a red japanned interior like the Aitken and Pompadour bureaux, creating a striking contrast with the Japanese lacquer exterior.
THE PAUL DUTASTA PROVENANCE
The present desk cabinet once formed part of the extensive and important collection of Paul Eugène Dutasta (1873-1926), French statesman and politician, until sold in Paris in June 1926. Dutasta held the position of French Ambassador in Switzerland between 1918 and 1920 and was elected ‘Secrétaire Général de la Conférence de la Paix’ in Paris after the war in 1919. He acted as representative of the Swiss authorities to Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau and the Allied Powers, and participated in negotiations which led to the drafting of article 435 of the Traité de Versailles which acknowledged the neutrality of Switzerland.
THE WALTERS COLLECTION
Although Sarah 'Sadie' Wharton Green Walters (1859-1943) did not marry the noted American railroad magnate, yachtsman, art collector and philanthropist Henry Walters (1848-1931) until 1922, she and her first husband, Pembroke Jones, had lived with Henry as a close friend since the turn of the century, traveling the world and assembling a magnificent art collection. With the death of his father in 1894, Henry Walters inherited the core of the collection that survives today as the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. Henry added to it, housing it in a purpose-built Renaissance style mansion in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore and opening it to the public in 1909 as the Walters Art Gallery. Upon his death in 1931, the house and contents were bequeathed to the City of Baltimore. As Henry’s younger widow, Sadie continued the family tradition of buying art and antiques, her taste running to eighteenth-century French decorative arts. In 1941, an eight-day two-part single owner sale was held at Parke-Bernet Galleries in New York, to disperse the bulk of her collection. The sale ran to a total of 1,456 lots, with the present vase offered as lot 679.