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Lot Essay
THE DRESSING TABLE SERVICE
The lady’s dressing table or toilette service developed in France in the 17th century and resulted from the royal and aristocratic practice of the levée or toilette, a semi-public ritual during which the lady might receive friends whilst being dressed and applied with powder and creams. It was an opportunity for the display of costly silver and silver-gilt sets of caskets and boxes centred around a looking-glass, with numerous other elements, such as candlesticks, porringers, scent bottles, brushes and whisks. Following the Restoration of the monarchy in Britain in 1660 the court of King Charles II, heavily influenced by French fashions, saw the introduction of the practice to England
In 1673 the diarist John Evelyn (1620-1702) wrote of Catherine de Braganza, ‘I saw her Majestie’s rich toylet in her dressing room, being all of massie gold, presented to her by the King, valued at £4,000.’ He satirised the practice of the toilette in his poem of the 1690s entitled 'Mundus Muliebris: or the ladies dressing-room unlock'd and her toilette spread':
“A new Scene to us next presents,
The Dressing-Room and Implements,
Of Toilet Plate Gilt, and Emboss'd,
And several other things of Cost,
The Table Miroir, one Glue Pot,
One for Pomatum, and whatnot?
Of Washes Unguents and Cosmeticks,
A pair of Silver Candlesticks;
Snuffers and Snuff-dish, Boxes more,
For Powders, Patches, Water Store,
In silver Flasks, or Bottles, Cups
Cover'd or open to wash chaps.”
Similarly in the 18th century the artist William Hogarth (1697-1764), in the fourth painting of his Marriage à la Mode series, The Toilette, depicts the young wife of the newly elevated Earl of Squander seated at her dressing table, the mirror sporting cresting displaying the earl’s coronet, all fashionably draped in silk, with various toilet boxes before it. The countess is having her hair curled whilst she is engaged in conversation with the lawyer Silvertongue.
Perhaps the earliest surviving English dressing table service is one from 1673, formerly in the collection at Knole, Kent and exhibited by Lord Sackville in the 1929 Loan Exhibition of Old English Plate, cat. no. 743-4. Other early services include a composite service of 1665 by differing makers, engraved with the arms of Farringdon, the Sizergh service, by Robert Smythier of circa 1680, decorated with chinoiserie flat chasing now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Acc. No. M.21K/1-1968, and the Calverley toilet service of 1683, in the same collection, Acc. No. 240-1879.
The Ellison Service offered here dates from the golden age of toilet services, which commenced in the 1690s and which continued until the 1730s. Later services were commissioned and survive, but the majority of examples date from this period. It is likely to have been presented to Elizabeth Ellison on her marriage in 1696.
DANIEL GARNIER
The Garnier family were French Huguenots from Vitry-le-François near Rennes, and it is thought Daniel was born there around 1667. The family fled to England where his father, Isaac, became the first apothecary of the newly established Royal Chelsea Hospital. It is not known whether Daniel was first apprenticed in France or England. He became free by redemption in 1696. Lomas and Rothwell, op. cit., note that, ‘His work is of astonishingly high quality: the Strangways Horner toilet service and the Jewel Office chandelier now at Williamsburg are probably his masterpieces’.
The chandelier, a magnificent example weighing over 700 ounces with ten branches, was made for King William III (1689-1702) between 1691 and 1697 for use in St. James’s Palace. It is now in the collection of Colonial Williamsburg. The Strangways Horner toilet service from circa 1695 differs from the present example in that it is gilded and the covers of the boxes and caskets are applied with cast mythological plaques, rather than being decorated with heraldic engraving as is the case with the Ellison toilette service. The Strangways-Horner service remains in a private collection and is currently exhibited at Hampton Court Palace.
Garnier had both royal and aristocratic patrons, including the Earl of Warrington. James Graham, 4th Marquess of Montrose and later 1st Duke (1682-1742) commissioned a silver-gilt ewer and basin from Garnier, dated 1697. It was formerly in the Noble collection, sold in Christie’s London, on 13th December 1967, lot 28 and is now at Colonial Williamsburg. A silver-gilt ecuelle by Garnier, dated 1694, is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York and a very fine silver-gilt tankard of 1698, with exceptional cut-card work, formerly in the Cassell collection, is now in the National Museum Wales, Cardiff.
Garnier is thought to have taken on only a single apprentice from 1697, identified as his maternal nephew, Jacques (James) Beschefer however, Garnier died on 26 April 1699 and was buried at The Royal Chelsea Hospital. His apprentice was taken on by fellow Huguenot Pierre Platel, the master of Paul de Lamerie.
The lady’s dressing table or toilette service developed in France in the 17th century and resulted from the royal and aristocratic practice of the levée or toilette, a semi-public ritual during which the lady might receive friends whilst being dressed and applied with powder and creams. It was an opportunity for the display of costly silver and silver-gilt sets of caskets and boxes centred around a looking-glass, with numerous other elements, such as candlesticks, porringers, scent bottles, brushes and whisks. Following the Restoration of the monarchy in Britain in 1660 the court of King Charles II, heavily influenced by French fashions, saw the introduction of the practice to England
In 1673 the diarist John Evelyn (1620-1702) wrote of Catherine de Braganza, ‘I saw her Majestie’s rich toylet in her dressing room, being all of massie gold, presented to her by the King, valued at £4,000.’ He satirised the practice of the toilette in his poem of the 1690s entitled 'Mundus Muliebris: or the ladies dressing-room unlock'd and her toilette spread':
“A new Scene to us next presents,
The Dressing-Room and Implements,
Of Toilet Plate Gilt, and Emboss'd,
And several other things of Cost,
The Table Miroir, one Glue Pot,
One for Pomatum, and whatnot?
Of Washes Unguents and Cosmeticks,
A pair of Silver Candlesticks;
Snuffers and Snuff-dish, Boxes more,
For Powders, Patches, Water Store,
In silver Flasks, or Bottles, Cups
Cover'd or open to wash chaps.”
Similarly in the 18th century the artist William Hogarth (1697-1764), in the fourth painting of his Marriage à la Mode series, The Toilette, depicts the young wife of the newly elevated Earl of Squander seated at her dressing table, the mirror sporting cresting displaying the earl’s coronet, all fashionably draped in silk, with various toilet boxes before it. The countess is having her hair curled whilst she is engaged in conversation with the lawyer Silvertongue.
Perhaps the earliest surviving English dressing table service is one from 1673, formerly in the collection at Knole, Kent and exhibited by Lord Sackville in the 1929 Loan Exhibition of Old English Plate, cat. no. 743-4. Other early services include a composite service of 1665 by differing makers, engraved with the arms of Farringdon, the Sizergh service, by Robert Smythier of circa 1680, decorated with chinoiserie flat chasing now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Acc. No. M.21K/1-1968, and the Calverley toilet service of 1683, in the same collection, Acc. No. 240-1879.
The Ellison Service offered here dates from the golden age of toilet services, which commenced in the 1690s and which continued until the 1730s. Later services were commissioned and survive, but the majority of examples date from this period. It is likely to have been presented to Elizabeth Ellison on her marriage in 1696.
DANIEL GARNIER
The Garnier family were French Huguenots from Vitry-le-François near Rennes, and it is thought Daniel was born there around 1667. The family fled to England where his father, Isaac, became the first apothecary of the newly established Royal Chelsea Hospital. It is not known whether Daniel was first apprenticed in France or England. He became free by redemption in 1696. Lomas and Rothwell, op. cit., note that, ‘His work is of astonishingly high quality: the Strangways Horner toilet service and the Jewel Office chandelier now at Williamsburg are probably his masterpieces’.
The chandelier, a magnificent example weighing over 700 ounces with ten branches, was made for King William III (1689-1702) between 1691 and 1697 for use in St. James’s Palace. It is now in the collection of Colonial Williamsburg. The Strangways Horner toilet service from circa 1695 differs from the present example in that it is gilded and the covers of the boxes and caskets are applied with cast mythological plaques, rather than being decorated with heraldic engraving as is the case with the Ellison toilette service. The Strangways-Horner service remains in a private collection and is currently exhibited at Hampton Court Palace.
Garnier had both royal and aristocratic patrons, including the Earl of Warrington. James Graham, 4th Marquess of Montrose and later 1st Duke (1682-1742) commissioned a silver-gilt ewer and basin from Garnier, dated 1697. It was formerly in the Noble collection, sold in Christie’s London, on 13th December 1967, lot 28 and is now at Colonial Williamsburg. A silver-gilt ecuelle by Garnier, dated 1694, is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York and a very fine silver-gilt tankard of 1698, with exceptional cut-card work, formerly in the Cassell collection, is now in the National Museum Wales, Cardiff.
Garnier is thought to have taken on only a single apprentice from 1697, identified as his maternal nephew, Jacques (James) Beschefer however, Garnier died on 26 April 1699 and was buried at The Royal Chelsea Hospital. His apprentice was taken on by fellow Huguenot Pierre Platel, the master of Paul de Lamerie.