A PAIR OF LOUIS XV ORMOLU CHENETS
A PAIR OF LOUIS XV ORMOLU CHENETS

ATTRIBUTED TO CHARLES CRESSENT

Details
A PAIR OF LOUIS XV ORMOLU CHENETS
Attributed to Charles Cressent
Each with a sphinx partially covered by drapery and holding a cat, on a pierced C-scroll and rocaille base with scallop-shells and foliage, one cat probably later and replacing a monkey, the other repositioned
15 in. (38 cm.) high (2)
Sale room notice
The pair of chenets now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Wrightsman Collection, was sold from the Collection of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, Sotheby's New York, 5 May 1984, lot 138 ($132,000).

Lot Essay

These chenets are identical to a well known model by Charles Cressent. They are described in and inventory of his stock drawn up in 1756 with a view to a forced sale meant to be held in 1757:

un feu qui représente deux sphinx, dont un badine avec un chat et l'autre avec un singe montés sur deux pieds du plus grand goût. Les amateurs remarqueront que ces sphinx ne sont point traités comme ceux qui font ordinairement pour des feux, ceux-ci peuvent être considérés comme ce qu'il y a de mieux traité en France, garni de ses agraffes dorées d'or moulu.

A pair of chenets of identical design is in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu (G. Wilson, Decorative Arts in The J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1977, p. 30), and another in the Wrightsman Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, New York, 1966, vol. II, p. 368, no. 186 A and B).

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