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Lot Essay
This remarkable secrtaire en cabinet, with its finely chased boldly neo-classical mounts incorporating lion's masks, classical urns and tokens of love's fidelity, such as hearts and the charming image of a dog, emblematic of Fidelity, has a number of most unusual refinements. The egg-and-dart frieze immediately below the gallery is executed entirely in carved kingwood with parcel-gilding- a very rare feature on bnisterie at this time, most makers more usually employing ormolu. Similarly, the remarkably life-like image of a spaniel on the fall-front, recumbent on a fashionably neo-classical stool, is also apparently unprecedented, leading to the conclusion that this charming secrtaire was intended as a gift to a wife or favorite mistress to symbolize love's fidelity, although it is also possible that the plaque may also be a commemorative portrait of the lady's favourite pet dog.
The passion for pet dogs amongst fashionable society in 18th Century France is well recorded, none more so than that of Madame de Pompadour. Her two favourite dogs, Mimi and Ies, depicted as Fidelit and Constance, appear in a pair of engravings of 1758 by Fessard after paintings by Huet. Moreover, both the paintings and the engravings were listed in an inventory taken after Madame de Pompadour's death. Two of her dogs also appear in a painting by Jean-Jacques Bachelier which was shown at the 1759 Salon. This painting was copied on a Svres porcelain gold-mounted box, now at Waddesdon Manor (S. Grandjean et al., The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, Gold Boxes and Miniatures of the Eighteenth Century, Fribourg, 1975, no. 52).
Interestingly, the box has marks for 1772-3, well after Madame de Pompadour's death in April 1764. These plaques were probably acquired by Pierre-Andr Jacquemin, who acted as the valuer of her possessions after her death and subsequently sold them in 1773, when they were presumably bought by Roucel, the maker of the box.
A celebrated Svres porcelain figure of a spaniel from the collection of Sir Robert Abdy, Bt., with a stand inscribed Fidelit, has traditionally always been associated with Madame de Pompadour (offered Christie's London, 23 June 1988, lot 22). Its stand however, most probably also postdates her as it is stamped by Jean-Franois Leleu, who became matre in September 1764. It is interesting to note, therefore, that Madame de Pompadour left one of her dogs to the duchesse de Choiseul, whose husband the duc was one of the champions of the new neo-classical taste, commissioning circa 1765-70 the celebrated got grec bureau plat with cartonnier by Simon Oeben, now in the Muse Cond, Chantilly.
The compact form and bold use of ormolu mounts on this secrtaire are of similar character to a toilet and writing-table by Pierre Garnier (matre in 1742) in the Wallace Collection, London (P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Furniture, London, 1996, vol. II, cat. 209). Garnier was one of the first bnistes
to adopt the avant garde neo-classical style of the 1760's, and was influenced by the designs of the progressive architect Charles de Wailly. His clients included Madame de Pompadour's brother, the marquis de Marigny, an important collector in his own right. Similar laurel fronds to those framing the portrait of the spaniel on this secrtaire appear on the friezes of a group of bureaux plats by Garnier, including those in the Huntington Collection, San Marino, California and in the collection of the Marquess of Bath at Longleat, Wiltshire.
The passion for pet dogs amongst fashionable society in 18th Century France is well recorded, none more so than that of Madame de Pompadour. Her two favourite dogs, Mimi and Ies, depicted as Fidelit and Constance, appear in a pair of engravings of 1758 by Fessard after paintings by Huet. Moreover, both the paintings and the engravings were listed in an inventory taken after Madame de Pompadour's death. Two of her dogs also appear in a painting by Jean-Jacques Bachelier which was shown at the 1759 Salon. This painting was copied on a Svres porcelain gold-mounted box, now at Waddesdon Manor (S. Grandjean et al., The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, Gold Boxes and Miniatures of the Eighteenth Century, Fribourg, 1975, no. 52).
Interestingly, the box has marks for 1772-3, well after Madame de Pompadour's death in April 1764. These plaques were probably acquired by Pierre-Andr Jacquemin, who acted as the valuer of her possessions after her death and subsequently sold them in 1773, when they were presumably bought by Roucel, the maker of the box.
A celebrated Svres porcelain figure of a spaniel from the collection of Sir Robert Abdy, Bt., with a stand inscribed Fidelit, has traditionally always been associated with Madame de Pompadour (offered Christie's London, 23 June 1988, lot 22). Its stand however, most probably also postdates her as it is stamped by Jean-Franois Leleu, who became matre in September 1764. It is interesting to note, therefore, that Madame de Pompadour left one of her dogs to the duchesse de Choiseul, whose husband the duc was one of the champions of the new neo-classical taste, commissioning circa 1765-70 the celebrated got grec bureau plat with cartonnier by Simon Oeben, now in the Muse Cond, Chantilly.
The compact form and bold use of ormolu mounts on this secrtaire are of similar character to a toilet and writing-table by Pierre Garnier (matre in 1742) in the Wallace Collection, London (P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Furniture, London, 1996, vol. II, cat. 209). Garnier was one of the first bnistes
to adopt the avant garde neo-classical style of the 1760's, and was influenced by the designs of the progressive architect Charles de Wailly. His clients included Madame de Pompadour's brother, the marquis de Marigny, an important collector in his own right. Similar laurel fronds to those framing the portrait of the spaniel on this secrtaire appear on the friezes of a group of bureaux plats by Garnier, including those in the Huntington Collection, San Marino, California and in the collection of the Marquess of Bath at Longleat, Wiltshire.