BY ALFRED BEURDELEY, PARIS, LAST QUARTER 19TH CENTURY, THE GOUACHE IN THE MANNER OF LOUIS LE MASSON AND EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Founded in around 1815 by Jean Beurdeley (d. 1853), the company's reputation was principally established under the latter's son, Louis-Auguste-Alfred (d. 1882), who took over from his father in 1840, opening a large shop in the Pavillon de Hanovre, on the corner of boulevard des Italiens and rue Louis-Legrand. Known chiefly for the refinement of its ormolu, whose mercurial gilding and hand chasing makes it difficult to distinguish from late 18th century work, and magnificent furniture copied from Louis XVI models in the Garde-meuble national, Beurdeley exhibited and won awards at all of the major International Exhibitions during the second half of the 19th century. The success and reputation of the firm continued under Alfred Beurdeley (d. 1919), who took over from his father in 1875. The company's workshops finally closed in 1895 and Beurdeley's stock was sold over a number of auctions. A number of these sales were conducted by Galerie Georges Petit of Paris. Two catalogues of the collection were published in 1895 and sales were held between 6-8 March and again on 27-28 May.

The gouache panel incorporated in this elegant guéridon is very much in the manner of Louis Le Masson (1743-1829), who was commissioned around 1782 by the Sèvres porcelain factory to design the so-called "Arabesque" service for Louis XVI. Of clear inspiration for the gouache is one design preserved by the Sèvres archive for an octagonal platter with a border of grotesques composed of foliate scrolls (see Exhibition Catalogue, Calouste Gulbenkian Musuem, Designing the Décor - French Drawings from the Eighteenth Century, Lisbon, 2005, pp. 108-9).