拍品專文
This pair of gueridon stands, with tray-tops richly inlaid with a silver and golden filigree of Roman foliage in the Louis XIV arabesque manner, are supported by festive caryatids of a bacchic youth and nymph bearing flower-baskets. Their design derives from a stand for a candelabrum or vase engraved by Jean le Pautre (d. 1682) in his Nouveau Livre de Termes (Victoria and Albert Museum , Pattern and Design, p. 61, fig. 2.3.g). A pair of related stands at Knole, Kent, accompanied by a pier-table, may well have been commissioned by Louis XIV in 1671 and were subsequently presented to Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset (d. 1705), who served at one time as Charles II's Ambassador to the Court of Louis XIV. The knole stands attributed to Pierre Gole (d. 1684), ébéniste to Louis XIV also have Boulle-inlaid tops and are supported by antique youths, emblematic of Peace and Plenty and bearing baskets symbolising Bacchus, Ceres and the Seasons of Summer and Autumn. They formed part of a suite of two tables and four stands supplied by Matthieu Lespagnandelle and gilded by David Dupré (M. Drury, 'Diplomat's Prize', Country Life, 3 Oct 1991, p. 54-55).
First listed in the 'Dictionnaire de l'Académie' in 1696, further torchères of this general form are recorded. The Grand Dauphin, for instance, owned a pair at the château de Meudon which was also of 'marqueterie d'écaille, de cuivre où d'étain et bois doré', and a further pair is recorded with the prince de Conti in 1709 - 'deux grands guéridons de bois doré sculpté le dessus de marqueterie'. Finally, the 1721 inventory of the duc de Bouillon records 'deux guéridons de marqueterie étain et cuivre sur leurs pieds en thermes de bois doré'.
Such herm torchères were, however, by no means exclusive to Paris, as there is a design by Daniel Marot in the Rijksprintenkabinet, Amsterdam (reproduced by M.D. Ozinge, 'Daniel Marot', 1938, pl. 8) for a pier-glass and related pair of stands exectued for the Royal Palace of Het Loo in August 1701. With their distinctive brass and pewter inlay on a kingwood ground, these torchères relate to the documented oeuvre of Antwerp cabinet-makers such as Hendrik van Soest (R. Fabri, Meubles d'Apparat des Pays-Bays Méridionaux, Paris, 1989), who supplied a Boulle bureau to Max-Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria.
A pair of related figural herm torchères was sold in these Rooms, 26 November 1971, lot 55.
First listed in the 'Dictionnaire de l'Académie' in 1696, further torchères of this general form are recorded. The Grand Dauphin, for instance, owned a pair at the château de Meudon which was also of 'marqueterie d'écaille, de cuivre où d'étain et bois doré', and a further pair is recorded with the prince de Conti in 1709 - 'deux grands guéridons de bois doré sculpté le dessus de marqueterie'. Finally, the 1721 inventory of the duc de Bouillon records 'deux guéridons de marqueterie étain et cuivre sur leurs pieds en thermes de bois doré'.
Such herm torchères were, however, by no means exclusive to Paris, as there is a design by Daniel Marot in the Rijksprintenkabinet, Amsterdam (reproduced by M.D. Ozinge, 'Daniel Marot', 1938, pl. 8) for a pier-glass and related pair of stands exectued for the Royal Palace of Het Loo in August 1701. With their distinctive brass and pewter inlay on a kingwood ground, these torchères relate to the documented oeuvre of Antwerp cabinet-makers such as Hendrik van Soest (R. Fabri, Meubles d'Apparat des Pays-Bays Méridionaux, Paris, 1989), who supplied a Boulle bureau to Max-Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria.
A pair of related figural herm torchères was sold in these Rooms, 26 November 1971, lot 55.