.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This commode was almost certainly acquired for Belvoir Castle by the 5th Duke and Duchess of Rutland. Although they may well have travelled to Paris earlier following the Peace of Amiens in 1802, their first recorded visit was in August 1814, when they visited the English Ambassador Lord Stuart de Rothesay. Although no categoric bills have yet come to light, the unpublished Journal of a trip to Paris by the Duke and Duchess of Rutland provides some illuminating insights into their activities in Paris:
'We passed the day in visiting various shops with a view to purchase of articles of ancient furniture. We were escorted by M. Tuwnot, for whose information our research was very successful. We met with some beautiful pieces with Mr. Mallerondt's rue Croix des Petits Champs, and at Mr. Coquille's' (p.27).
Their second trip, in August 1815 was obviously more disappointing, although they did visit the Gobelins factory, as well as the horloger Breguet - 'who showed us many ingenious and beautiful specimens of his art but of a very high price....We passed the day shopping. We found the shops much worse supplied with objects than last year's and in some cases we were informed that their most valuable articles were put by, for fear of the dreadful Prussians'.
Elizabeth, 5th Duchess, was a Howard by birth and was brought up in the scenic splendours of Castle Howard, although she had inherited Leveson-Gower and Egerton 'francophile' traits from her mother, the daughter of the 1st Marquess of Stafford, whose brother was the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater. The 5th Duke and Duchess turned to James Wyatt in 1800 to aid them in the modernisation of Belvoir. Deeply immersed in Fonthill and increasingly involved at Windsor, Wyatt was as ever over-stretched, but in the redoubtable 5th Duchess and the Duke's kinsman and chaplain, the Rev. John Thoroton, the Rutland's succeeded in deriving from Wyatt 'one of the major achievements of the Wyatt Gothic revival'. Reconstruction was sufficiently complete by January 1813 for the Prince Regent himself to pay an extended visit, after whom the magnificent 130 foot 'Regent's Gallery' is named. It was, however, incomplete, and the remarkable series of Don Quixote tapestries after cartoons by Coypel that now adorn its walls were not acquired until the Duke and Duchess' Paris tour of 1814. Tragically, much of the newly built castle at Belvoir was damaged by a fire that struck in 1816. Ultimately Thoroton, the Duchess and both Benjamin Dean and Mathew Coates Wyatt completed their father's legacy, but it was the Duchess who instructed that the newly rebuilt Thoroton's Tower should be in 'Louis XIV style' - and this remains arguably the earliest Rococo revival interior in England.
RELATED COMMODES
This commode is almost identical to that sold from the Rothschild Collections at Mentmore by the Earl of Rosebery, Sotheby's London, 17 April 1964, lot 53. This latter commode had further mounts at each end, and this same model of end mount was on the doors of a smaller Weiswiler commode à vantaux, also sold from Mentmore (Sotheby's London, 30 June 1978, lot 119). Perhaps always together, the smaller Mentmore commode was delivered by Daguerre in 1789 for the garde-robe of Louis XVI at Versailles and bore the Versailles brand, to where it has now returned.
THE MOUNTS
Although the author of Weisweiler's mounts - so often supplied by Daguerre before 1794 - is not known conclusively, Weisweiler collaborated extensively with Thomire et Duterme even after his decision to set himself up as a marchand-ébéniste in 1797.
The distinctive fountain mount - probably executed by the ciseleur-doreur François Rémond, is found not only on the aforementioned Versailles commode from Mentmore, but also on the pietra dura mounted commode designed by Julliot, which is now in the Swedish Royal Collection in Stockholm. These same mounts also appear on a pair of Weisweiler yew-wood commodes with porcelain plaques acquired by Queen Hortense for the rue Cerruti in 1798. Now in a Private Collection, these latter commodes have porcelain plaques with date letter for 1788. They were therefore almost certainly executed for Dominique Daguerre just around the time of the 1789 Revolution and presumably remained in stock until sold by Daguerre's successor Martin-Eloi Lignereux around 1795-97. The Champalimaud commode can therefore be confidently dated to circa 1790.
The figurative roundel on the central door is also found on one of the pair of meubles d'appui at the Wallace Collection, London (P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Furniture II, London, 1996, 129, p.599-606), as well as on the bases of a long-case clock stamped by Weisweiler and Beneman at Southill, Bedfordshire. Two round plaques, one of which probably corresponds with that on the Champalimaud commode, are listed in the inventory taken after Daguerre's death in 1796 - once again re-affirming Daguerre's involvement in the creation of this model.
DOMINIQUE DAGUERRE
The heir to Simon-Philippe Poirier's atelier, Dominique Daguerre specialised in supplying objets de luxe to the French Court and, increasingly during the 1780s, to the English nobility. Based in the rue St. Honoré, as his trade label reveals he Tient Magafin de Porcelaines, Bronzes, Ebénisterie, Glaces, Curiosités, & autres Marchandises, and in the 1780s he even opened a shop in Piccadilly, London to supply the Prince of Wales and his circle, including the Duke of Bedford and Earl Spencer.
Although this commode may conceivably also have formed part of the Rutland's Paris purchases, in taste it is far more allied to Daguerre's retailing to English clients directly in London, and the Duchess famously found everything in Paris over-priced.
Interestingly, Christie's held two sales, the first (anonymous but almost certainly Daguerre's stock) on 15-17 March 1790 and the second, on 25 March 1791, entitled Superb Articles in French Or-Moulu ... Imported from Paris by Mons. Daguerre.
'We passed the day in visiting various shops with a view to purchase of articles of ancient furniture. We were escorted by M. Tuwnot, for whose information our research was very successful. We met with some beautiful pieces with Mr. Mallerondt's rue Croix des Petits Champs, and at Mr. Coquille's' (p.27).
Their second trip, in August 1815 was obviously more disappointing, although they did visit the Gobelins factory, as well as the horloger Breguet - 'who showed us many ingenious and beautiful specimens of his art but of a very high price....We passed the day shopping. We found the shops much worse supplied with objects than last year's and in some cases we were informed that their most valuable articles were put by, for fear of the dreadful Prussians'.
Elizabeth, 5th Duchess, was a Howard by birth and was brought up in the scenic splendours of Castle Howard, although she had inherited Leveson-Gower and Egerton 'francophile' traits from her mother, the daughter of the 1st Marquess of Stafford, whose brother was the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater. The 5th Duke and Duchess turned to James Wyatt in 1800 to aid them in the modernisation of Belvoir. Deeply immersed in Fonthill and increasingly involved at Windsor, Wyatt was as ever over-stretched, but in the redoubtable 5th Duchess and the Duke's kinsman and chaplain, the Rev. John Thoroton, the Rutland's succeeded in deriving from Wyatt 'one of the major achievements of the Wyatt Gothic revival'. Reconstruction was sufficiently complete by January 1813 for the Prince Regent himself to pay an extended visit, after whom the magnificent 130 foot 'Regent's Gallery' is named. It was, however, incomplete, and the remarkable series of Don Quixote tapestries after cartoons by Coypel that now adorn its walls were not acquired until the Duke and Duchess' Paris tour of 1814. Tragically, much of the newly built castle at Belvoir was damaged by a fire that struck in 1816. Ultimately Thoroton, the Duchess and both Benjamin Dean and Mathew Coates Wyatt completed their father's legacy, but it was the Duchess who instructed that the newly rebuilt Thoroton's Tower should be in 'Louis XIV style' - and this remains arguably the earliest Rococo revival interior in England.
RELATED COMMODES
This commode is almost identical to that sold from the Rothschild Collections at Mentmore by the Earl of Rosebery, Sotheby's London, 17 April 1964, lot 53. This latter commode had further mounts at each end, and this same model of end mount was on the doors of a smaller Weiswiler commode à vantaux, also sold from Mentmore (Sotheby's London, 30 June 1978, lot 119). Perhaps always together, the smaller Mentmore commode was delivered by Daguerre in 1789 for the garde-robe of Louis XVI at Versailles and bore the Versailles brand, to where it has now returned.
THE MOUNTS
Although the author of Weisweiler's mounts - so often supplied by Daguerre before 1794 - is not known conclusively, Weisweiler collaborated extensively with Thomire et Duterme even after his decision to set himself up as a marchand-ébéniste in 1797.
The distinctive fountain mount - probably executed by the ciseleur-doreur François Rémond, is found not only on the aforementioned Versailles commode from Mentmore, but also on the pietra dura mounted commode designed by Julliot, which is now in the Swedish Royal Collection in Stockholm. These same mounts also appear on a pair of Weisweiler yew-wood commodes with porcelain plaques acquired by Queen Hortense for the rue Cerruti in 1798. Now in a Private Collection, these latter commodes have porcelain plaques with date letter for 1788. They were therefore almost certainly executed for Dominique Daguerre just around the time of the 1789 Revolution and presumably remained in stock until sold by Daguerre's successor Martin-Eloi Lignereux around 1795-97. The Champalimaud commode can therefore be confidently dated to circa 1790.
The figurative roundel on the central door is also found on one of the pair of meubles d'appui at the Wallace Collection, London (P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Furniture II, London, 1996, 129, p.599-606), as well as on the bases of a long-case clock stamped by Weisweiler and Beneman at Southill, Bedfordshire. Two round plaques, one of which probably corresponds with that on the Champalimaud commode, are listed in the inventory taken after Daguerre's death in 1796 - once again re-affirming Daguerre's involvement in the creation of this model.
DOMINIQUE DAGUERRE
The heir to Simon-Philippe Poirier's atelier, Dominique Daguerre specialised in supplying objets de luxe to the French Court and, increasingly during the 1780s, to the English nobility. Based in the rue St. Honoré, as his trade label reveals he Tient Magafin de Porcelaines, Bronzes, Ebénisterie, Glaces, Curiosités, & autres Marchandises, and in the 1780s he even opened a shop in Piccadilly, London to supply the Prince of Wales and his circle, including the Duke of Bedford and Earl Spencer.
Although this commode may conceivably also have formed part of the Rutland's Paris purchases, in taste it is far more allied to Daguerre's retailing to English clients directly in London, and the Duchess famously found everything in Paris over-priced.
Interestingly, Christie's held two sales, the first (anonymous but almost certainly Daguerre's stock) on 15-17 March 1790 and the second, on 25 March 1791, entitled Superb Articles in French Or-Moulu ... Imported from Paris by Mons. Daguerre.