Lot Essay
André-Charles Boulle, ébéniste, ciseleur, doreur et sculpteur du Roi, maître before 1666
THE PRINCES BELOSELSKY-BELOZERSKY
The history of the première partie coffer illustrates the enormous appeal of French furniture for the Russian aristocracy in the 18th century. It's first recorded owner was Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Beloselsky-Belosersky (1752-1809), the son of a favorite of Empress Catherine I. He came from a thoroughly cosmopolitan family: his eldest brother, Prince Andrei (1740-1776) was attached to the Russian embassy in Paris where he and his wife were painted by Roslin in 1762 and he went on to become Ambassador in London until his death. His sister married Count Stroganov, the great collector of French painting and furniture.
Prince Alexander Mikhailovich was also a diplomat; he served first as Catherine the Great's minister plenipotentary to Dresden in 1779 and then to Turin in 1789 where his first wife died. He returned to St. Petersburg and remarried the great heiress, Maria Kositzka in 1794. He then acquired Krestovsky Island in the Neva and set about building a great palace to designs of Thomas de Thomon on the corner of the Fontanka Canal and the Nevsky Prospekt.
A highly cultivated man and member of numerous academies, he maintained an assiduous correspondence with Rousseau, Voltaire, L'abbé Delisle, Laharpe and Marmontel. He spoke and wrote Italian, German and French and published a philosophical text in 1791 entitled "Dyanolgie ou tableau phylosophique de l'entendement". He also composed a cantata and one of the first Russian operas "Olenka ou un premier amour" produced in Moscow in 1796.
According to family tradition, he began collecting paintings while still in Dresden. It was possibly from there that he gave the order to the marchand Julliot to acquire the great armoire in 'boulle' marquetry now attributed to Noël Gérard which came up for sale from the collection of the jeweller Antoine Alexandre Dubois on December 20, 1787. The armoire also remained in the Beloselsky-Belozersky collections until the 1921 auction and was sold again at Christie's Monaco, 18 June 1989, lot 212.
Just over a year after the Dubois sale, a coffer corresponding to the première partie example here comes up for sale in the collection of the chevalier Lambert (27 March 1788, lot 309), although the description is insufficient to identify it with certainty as the Beloselsky-Belozersky example.
The coffer along with the Prince's other French furniture remained in the St. Petersburg palace until the late 19th century when the latter was sold to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich to pay off gambling debts. The collections were then moved to Krestovsky Island.
In the wake of the Russian Revolution, the family took measures to save their collections. Immediately following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in February 1917, Prince and Princess Konstantin Beloselsky-Belozersky left Krestovsky Island for a rented estate in Finland taking as many of their possessions with them as possible. Later in 1917, Prince Konstantin's butler shipped more pieces to Finland (information kindly supplied by Mr. and Mrs. Serge Kasarda and Mr. Marvin Lyons). The recent discovery of an inventory label on the première partie coffer supports this: the label is written in Polish [?]"...French [?] 2 tables and one casket for jewelry 1919/Petrograd/Karol Plady [?]" It would imply that the piece had been sent from Saint Petersburg sometime after 1914 when the city's name was changed to Petrograd. The pieces eventually reached Paris from Finland and were sold following the death of Prince Konstantin in 1921.
By contrast, the history of the contre partie coffer is decidedly French. It was acquired by Alfred Sommier for the château of Vaux-le-Vicomte sometime prior to 1906 and probably between 1876 and 1888 when Sommier was refurnishing and restoring Nicholas Fouquet's masterpiece. It is tempting to associate this coffer with one which appeared in the sale of Mme. Oger de Bréart, the great friend of Sir Richard Wallace, on 17 May 1888, lot 447.
THE COFFERS OF ANDRÉ-CHARLES BOULLE
On his return from Flanders in August 1671, the duc de Créqui presented Louis XIV with two 'petits cabinets d'écaille de tortue en forme de sépulcre avec quelques ornemens de filigrame d'argent'. This is the first recorded instance of tortoiseshell-inlaid furniture entering into Louis XIV's possession.
The popularity of such coffrets de toilette is confirmed by the longevity of their production by André-Charles Boulle and his sons over a period of more than forty years. As early as 1684, Boulle delivered a coffret for the Grand Dauphin's appartements at the château de Versailles, probably one of the two coffers now conserved in the J. Paul Getty Museum, California (82DA 109 1-2).
In the déclaration somptuaire of 7 April 1700, 'deux petits coffres avec leurs pieds' are recorded in Boulle's atelier, while in the acte de délaissement of 1715, a further 'douze pieds de coffres ayant des guesnes ou de cabinets en bois blanc de sapin 600 L' are mentioned.
In the fire of 1720, 'douze coffres, avec leurs pieds du differentes grandeurs et formes' were destroyed, while as late as 1732, under item 53, is listed
Une boeste contenant les modèles des ornemens de coffres de nuit et de toilette pesant ensemble quarante-quatre livres, prisés à raison de vingt-quatre sols la Livre...LII I.XVIs
Referred to as 'coffre de toilette' in Mariette's folio Nouveaux Deisseins de Meubles et Ouvrages de Bronze et Marqueterie Inventés et gravés par André-Charles Boulle of 1707, this form was also described as a coffre de nuit, used to store night garments or perhaps a watch, épingle à perruque or tabatière. Such coffers are, however, equally recorded in eighteenth century cabinets where they were used to secure papers, such as the inventory of Jean Philippeaux's possessions in 1711, described as:
une petite cassette sur son pied, le tout de marquetterie faite par Boulle avec ornements de cuivre prisé 400 L
Further 18th century references to coffres include that in the effects of Pierre Gruyn in 1722 and the 1736 inventory of the celebrated dealer Juillot, the notary describing
n. 174 une cassette de Boulle avec sa table aussi de Boulle garnie de bronze doré d'or moulu 312 livres
while the salerooms recorded a single coffer from the collection of Angrand de Fontpertuis (4 March 1748, no. 370), another from the collection of Baron Crozat de Thiers (26 February 1772, no. 1111) and another in the Bonnemet sale (4 December 1771, no. 150). Several further references from the Julienne, Lauraguais, Lambert, Dubois and Ségur-de-Clesle sales are cited in Pradère, (op.cit.) Paris, 1989, p. 86.
Although the effects of Etienne Moulle, listed by the notary in 1702, describe
deux cassettes avec leur pied de marqueterie de Boulle garnies de bronzes doré, 500 L
it was principally only in the second half of the 18th century that coffers start to appear in pairs, a fact that was quickly capitalised upon by the marchands, who matched together closely related examples, preferably in contrasting première and contre-partie, such as those sold by the marchands Lerouge (11 January 1799, no. 25) and Dubois (18 December 1789, no. 150), as well as the pair in the Haudry sale of 1794 (nos. 249 and 250).
Of the extant closely related coffres de toilette, Pradère (op.cit., p. 104) lists a pair and a single example in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, Boughton House, Northamptonshire (T. Murdoch, ed., Boughton House, The English Versailles, London, 1992, pp. 118, 121, figs. 111-112); another, reputedly given by Louis XV to the 9th Lord Cathcart circa 1748-9, sold anonymously in these Rooms, 18 May 1989, lot 94; another is in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle; a further pair are in the Wallace Collection (F.J.B. Watson, Wallace Collection Catalogues: Furniture, London, 1956, F411-2, plate 63); a pair was formerly in the Helena Rubinstein Collection; a further pair, perhaps the Rubinstein pair, are in the collection of Baron de Rothschild (D. Cooper, ed., Great Private Collections, Paris, 1963, p. 171); another was sold anonymously at Christie's London, 20 June 1985, lot 60; and a further pair of coffers, believed to have been purchased from the duc de Richelieu's collection in 1788, was sold from Ashburnham Collection, Sotheby's London, 26 June 1953, lot 114, and a pair formerly in the Seillière Collection was sold by the Marquess of Cholmondeley, Christie's London, 8 December 1994, lot 22.
THE PRINCES BELOSELSKY-BELOZERSKY
The history of the première partie coffer illustrates the enormous appeal of French furniture for the Russian aristocracy in the 18th century. It's first recorded owner was Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Beloselsky-Belosersky (1752-1809), the son of a favorite of Empress Catherine I. He came from a thoroughly cosmopolitan family: his eldest brother, Prince Andrei (1740-1776) was attached to the Russian embassy in Paris where he and his wife were painted by Roslin in 1762 and he went on to become Ambassador in London until his death. His sister married Count Stroganov, the great collector of French painting and furniture.
Prince Alexander Mikhailovich was also a diplomat; he served first as Catherine the Great's minister plenipotentary to Dresden in 1779 and then to Turin in 1789 where his first wife died. He returned to St. Petersburg and remarried the great heiress, Maria Kositzka in 1794. He then acquired Krestovsky Island in the Neva and set about building a great palace to designs of Thomas de Thomon on the corner of the Fontanka Canal and the Nevsky Prospekt.
A highly cultivated man and member of numerous academies, he maintained an assiduous correspondence with Rousseau, Voltaire, L'abbé Delisle, Laharpe and Marmontel. He spoke and wrote Italian, German and French and published a philosophical text in 1791 entitled "Dyanolgie ou tableau phylosophique de l'entendement". He also composed a cantata and one of the first Russian operas "Olenka ou un premier amour" produced in Moscow in 1796.
According to family tradition, he began collecting paintings while still in Dresden. It was possibly from there that he gave the order to the marchand Julliot to acquire the great armoire in 'boulle' marquetry now attributed to Noël Gérard which came up for sale from the collection of the jeweller Antoine Alexandre Dubois on December 20, 1787. The armoire also remained in the Beloselsky-Belozersky collections until the 1921 auction and was sold again at Christie's Monaco, 18 June 1989, lot 212.
Just over a year after the Dubois sale, a coffer corresponding to the première partie example here comes up for sale in the collection of the chevalier Lambert (27 March 1788, lot 309), although the description is insufficient to identify it with certainty as the Beloselsky-Belozersky example.
The coffer along with the Prince's other French furniture remained in the St. Petersburg palace until the late 19th century when the latter was sold to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich to pay off gambling debts. The collections were then moved to Krestovsky Island.
In the wake of the Russian Revolution, the family took measures to save their collections. Immediately following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in February 1917, Prince and Princess Konstantin Beloselsky-Belozersky left Krestovsky Island for a rented estate in Finland taking as many of their possessions with them as possible. Later in 1917, Prince Konstantin's butler shipped more pieces to Finland (information kindly supplied by Mr. and Mrs. Serge Kasarda and Mr. Marvin Lyons). The recent discovery of an inventory label on the première partie coffer supports this: the label is written in Polish [?]"...French [?] 2 tables and one casket for jewelry 1919/Petrograd/Karol Plady [?]" It would imply that the piece had been sent from Saint Petersburg sometime after 1914 when the city's name was changed to Petrograd. The pieces eventually reached Paris from Finland and were sold following the death of Prince Konstantin in 1921.
By contrast, the history of the contre partie coffer is decidedly French. It was acquired by Alfred Sommier for the château of Vaux-le-Vicomte sometime prior to 1906 and probably between 1876 and 1888 when Sommier was refurnishing and restoring Nicholas Fouquet's masterpiece. It is tempting to associate this coffer with one which appeared in the sale of Mme. Oger de Bréart, the great friend of Sir Richard Wallace, on 17 May 1888, lot 447.
THE COFFERS OF ANDRÉ-CHARLES BOULLE
On his return from Flanders in August 1671, the duc de Créqui presented Louis XIV with two 'petits cabinets d'écaille de tortue en forme de sépulcre avec quelques ornemens de filigrame d'argent'. This is the first recorded instance of tortoiseshell-inlaid furniture entering into Louis XIV's possession.
The popularity of such coffrets de toilette is confirmed by the longevity of their production by André-Charles Boulle and his sons over a period of more than forty years. As early as 1684, Boulle delivered a coffret for the Grand Dauphin's appartements at the château de Versailles, probably one of the two coffers now conserved in the J. Paul Getty Museum, California (82DA 109 1-2).
In the déclaration somptuaire of 7 April 1700, 'deux petits coffres avec leurs pieds' are recorded in Boulle's atelier, while in the acte de délaissement of 1715, a further 'douze pieds de coffres ayant des guesnes ou de cabinets en bois blanc de sapin 600 L' are mentioned.
In the fire of 1720, 'douze coffres, avec leurs pieds du differentes grandeurs et formes' were destroyed, while as late as 1732, under item 53, is listed
Une boeste contenant les modèles des ornemens de coffres de nuit et de toilette pesant ensemble quarante-quatre livres, prisés à raison de vingt-quatre sols la Livre...LII I.XVIs
Referred to as 'coffre de toilette' in Mariette's folio Nouveaux Deisseins de Meubles et Ouvrages de Bronze et Marqueterie Inventés et gravés par André-Charles Boulle of 1707, this form was also described as a coffre de nuit, used to store night garments or perhaps a watch, épingle à perruque or tabatière. Such coffers are, however, equally recorded in eighteenth century cabinets where they were used to secure papers, such as the inventory of Jean Philippeaux's possessions in 1711, described as:
une petite cassette sur son pied, le tout de marquetterie faite par Boulle avec ornements de cuivre prisé 400 L
Further 18th century references to coffres include that in the effects of Pierre Gruyn in 1722 and the 1736 inventory of the celebrated dealer Juillot, the notary describing
n. 174 une cassette de Boulle avec sa table aussi de Boulle garnie de bronze doré d'or moulu 312 livres
while the salerooms recorded a single coffer from the collection of Angrand de Fontpertuis (4 March 1748, no. 370), another from the collection of Baron Crozat de Thiers (26 February 1772, no. 1111) and another in the Bonnemet sale (4 December 1771, no. 150). Several further references from the Julienne, Lauraguais, Lambert, Dubois and Ségur-de-Clesle sales are cited in Pradère, (op.cit.) Paris, 1989, p. 86.
Although the effects of Etienne Moulle, listed by the notary in 1702, describe
deux cassettes avec leur pied de marqueterie de Boulle garnies de bronzes doré, 500 L
it was principally only in the second half of the 18th century that coffers start to appear in pairs, a fact that was quickly capitalised upon by the marchands, who matched together closely related examples, preferably in contrasting première and contre-partie, such as those sold by the marchands Lerouge (11 January 1799, no. 25) and Dubois (18 December 1789, no. 150), as well as the pair in the Haudry sale of 1794 (nos. 249 and 250).
Of the extant closely related coffres de toilette, Pradère (op.cit., p. 104) lists a pair and a single example in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, Boughton House, Northamptonshire (T. Murdoch, ed., Boughton House, The English Versailles, London, 1992, pp. 118, 121, figs. 111-112); another, reputedly given by Louis XV to the 9th Lord Cathcart circa 1748-9, sold anonymously in these Rooms, 18 May 1989, lot 94; another is in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle; a further pair are in the Wallace Collection (F.J.B. Watson, Wallace Collection Catalogues: Furniture, London, 1956, F411-2, plate 63); a pair was formerly in the Helena Rubinstein Collection; a further pair, perhaps the Rubinstein pair, are in the collection of Baron de Rothschild (D. Cooper, ed., Great Private Collections, Paris, 1963, p. 171); another was sold anonymously at Christie's London, 20 June 1985, lot 60; and a further pair of coffers, believed to have been purchased from the duc de Richelieu's collection in 1788, was sold from Ashburnham Collection, Sotheby's London, 26 June 1953, lot 114, and a pair formerly in the Seillière Collection was sold by the Marquess of Cholmondeley, Christie's London, 8 December 1994, lot 22.