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Lot Essay
Louis-Gabriel Feloix, matre in 1754
Claude-Jean Pitoin, matre doreur in 1778
These wall-lights were delivered on 25 May 1781 by the marchand- fondeur Claude-Jean Pitoin to the Garde-Meuble pour servir dans le Cabinet Interieur de la Reine au Chateau de Versailles. Delivered at a cost of 3,600 livres (reduced from 4,000 livres, probably by the intendants Thierry de Ville d'Avray or Haur) and attributed to the fondeur Gabriel-Louis Feloix, their delivery was recorded in the Journal du Garde-Meuble on September 25 of the same year in the following entry:
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The mention le tout fait par modle exprs et avec sujtion suggests that these wall-ligts were cast from an original drawing created for Marie-Antoinette, with reserved use for the Royal household.
THE DESIGN AND ITS AUTHOR
Pitoin had worked for his father Quentin-Claude Pitoin, a regular supplier of bronzes d'ameublement to the French Court from the 1760s up to the time of his death in 1777. He served as an apprentice to the matre-sculpteur Martin, and was received matre-doreur sur mtaux in 1788.
Pursuing the family business, he succeeded his father in 1777 as the principal supplier of ornamental bronzes to the Garde-Meuble until 1784, whereafter his name disappears from the Royal accounts. He was particularly favored by Marie-Antoinette, and his records of delivery to the Crown reveal that, up until 1781, he delivered items to the value of nearly 30,000 livres per year (the total of his deliveries amounted to the enormous sum of 185,231 livres). Other illustrious clients included courtiers such as the Prince de Salm, who owed him 15 livres at the time of Pitoin's demise in 1791.
Although it is possible that Pitoin, because of his training as a sculptor, designed his own models, the inspiration for the design of this set of wall-lights, seems to lie in a drawing executed by the draughtsman Jean-Franois Forty (circa 1730-1793). The latter's design, which was subsequently engraved, displays the same distinctive reeded branches with fully-modelled fruits and foliage wreaths around the drip-pans.
The execution and casting of this model was probably carried out by the fondeur Louis-Gabriel Floix (1729-1812) to the direct order of Pitoin, who may have owned the master model, reworked from Forty's design. Floix, the son of an engraver of the Paris Mint, had been received fondeur in 1754. Established in the rue des Boucheries and later the rue de Berri, he collaborated with the most important fondeurs and ciseleurs of the time, such as the Pitoin family and Godille, as well as with the marchands-merciers Darnault, Poirier and, later Daguerre. In his stock inventory of 1789, a 'bras tierse (thyrsus) et corne d'abondance: 400 livres' was listed. It is interesting to note, therefore, that a simplified version of this model with the distinctive thyrsus, subsequently in the Gilmour Collection, was sold from the Carlhian Collection, 7 December 1968, lot 24.
MARIE-ANTOINETTE'S BOUDOIR DE LA MRIDIENNE AT VERSAILLES
The boudoir de la Mridienne, situated in the former cabinet of Queen Maria Leszczynska behind the alcove of Marie-Antoinette's bedchamber, was fully remodelled by the architect Richard Mique (1728-1794) in 1781, shortly before the Dauphin's birth. Of unusual octagonal form, it was fitted with wood panels carved by the Rousseau brothers, ornamental bronzes supplied by the bronzier Etienne Forestier's widow and a chimeypiece in griotte marble. A pair of chenets of oval vase model delivered by Pitoin on May 24, 1781 was placed in the fireplace, on top of which were placed four figurative bronzes, two agate vases and a mantel-clock by d'Ageron, given by the future King Louis XVI to his Queen in 1770. The furniture included a marquetry console and a table en chiffonnire delivered by the bniste Jean-Henri Riesener on September 24, 1781, (now at Waddesdon Manor), a giltwood console (now at the Chteau de Versailles), and chairs executed by Toussaint Foliot, gilt by Bardoux and upholstered by Capin in a grenadire bleu glac and recorded in the Journal du Garde-Meuble on April 13, 1781. A set of four candlesticks featuring caryatids, garlands and dolphins, in the Wallace Collection (F 164 and 165), delivered by Pitoin at a cost of 1,500 livres, completed the room decoration. The candlesticks, like the wall decorations, incorporated the dolphin device in honor of the Dauphin's birth. These wall-lights were placed above each console, each pair flanking a mirror, with the thyrsus motif intertwined with swirling vines further repeated on the ormolu mounts gilt by Franois Rmond and fitted on the furniture executed by Riesener.
Claude-Jean Pitoin, matre doreur in 1778
These wall-lights were delivered on 25 May 1781 by the marchand- fondeur Claude-Jean Pitoin to the Garde-Meuble pour servir dans le Cabinet Interieur de la Reine au Chateau de Versailles. Delivered at a cost of 3,600 livres (reduced from 4,000 livres, probably by the intendants Thierry de Ville d'Avray or Haur) and attributed to the fondeur Gabriel-Louis Feloix, their delivery was recorded in the Journal du Garde-Meuble on September 25 of the same year in the following entry:
'
The mention le tout fait par modle exprs et avec sujtion suggests that these wall-ligts were cast from an original drawing created for Marie-Antoinette, with reserved use for the Royal household.
THE DESIGN AND ITS AUTHOR
Pitoin had worked for his father Quentin-Claude Pitoin, a regular supplier of bronzes d'ameublement to the French Court from the 1760s up to the time of his death in 1777. He served as an apprentice to the matre-sculpteur Martin, and was received matre-doreur sur mtaux in 1788.
Pursuing the family business, he succeeded his father in 1777 as the principal supplier of ornamental bronzes to the Garde-Meuble until 1784, whereafter his name disappears from the Royal accounts. He was particularly favored by Marie-Antoinette, and his records of delivery to the Crown reveal that, up until 1781, he delivered items to the value of nearly 30,000 livres per year (the total of his deliveries amounted to the enormous sum of 185,231 livres). Other illustrious clients included courtiers such as the Prince de Salm, who owed him 15 livres at the time of Pitoin's demise in 1791.
Although it is possible that Pitoin, because of his training as a sculptor, designed his own models, the inspiration for the design of this set of wall-lights, seems to lie in a drawing executed by the draughtsman Jean-Franois Forty (circa 1730-1793). The latter's design, which was subsequently engraved, displays the same distinctive reeded branches with fully-modelled fruits and foliage wreaths around the drip-pans.
The execution and casting of this model was probably carried out by the fondeur Louis-Gabriel Floix (1729-1812) to the direct order of Pitoin, who may have owned the master model, reworked from Forty's design. Floix, the son of an engraver of the Paris Mint, had been received fondeur in 1754. Established in the rue des Boucheries and later the rue de Berri, he collaborated with the most important fondeurs and ciseleurs of the time, such as the Pitoin family and Godille, as well as with the marchands-merciers Darnault, Poirier and, later Daguerre. In his stock inventory of 1789, a 'bras tierse (thyrsus) et corne d'abondance: 400 livres' was listed. It is interesting to note, therefore, that a simplified version of this model with the distinctive thyrsus, subsequently in the Gilmour Collection, was sold from the Carlhian Collection, 7 December 1968, lot 24.
MARIE-ANTOINETTE'S BOUDOIR DE LA MRIDIENNE AT VERSAILLES
The boudoir de la Mridienne, situated in the former cabinet of Queen Maria Leszczynska behind the alcove of Marie-Antoinette's bedchamber, was fully remodelled by the architect Richard Mique (1728-1794) in 1781, shortly before the Dauphin's birth. Of unusual octagonal form, it was fitted with wood panels carved by the Rousseau brothers, ornamental bronzes supplied by the bronzier Etienne Forestier's widow and a chimeypiece in griotte marble. A pair of chenets of oval vase model delivered by Pitoin on May 24, 1781 was placed in the fireplace, on top of which were placed four figurative bronzes, two agate vases and a mantel-clock by d'Ageron, given by the future King Louis XVI to his Queen in 1770. The furniture included a marquetry console and a table en chiffonnire delivered by the bniste Jean-Henri Riesener on September 24, 1781, (now at Waddesdon Manor), a giltwood console (now at the Chteau de Versailles), and chairs executed by Toussaint Foliot, gilt by Bardoux and upholstered by Capin in a grenadire bleu glac and recorded in the Journal du Garde-Meuble on April 13, 1781. A set of four candlesticks featuring caryatids, garlands and dolphins, in the Wallace Collection (F 164 and 165), delivered by Pitoin at a cost of 1,500 livres, completed the room decoration. The candlesticks, like the wall decorations, incorporated the dolphin device in honor of the Dauphin's birth. These wall-lights were placed above each console, each pair flanking a mirror, with the thyrsus motif intertwined with swirling vines further repeated on the ormolu mounts gilt by Franois Rmond and fitted on the furniture executed by Riesener.