THE FIGURES CIRCA 1750

Deliberately decorated to resemble the finest and most expensive 17th Century Japanese lacquer, the production of lacquered-bronze figures has traditionally been associated almost exclusively with the Martin dynasty. This conclusion is supported both by contemporary documentary references - such as the 1753 reference in the Inventory of the comtesse de Mailly - as well as the fact that the Martin dynasty was granted a Royal Patent to protect the vernis technique which they had invented, which was subsequently further enhanced in 1744 by a renewed one for lacquer wares en relief dans le got du Japon et de la Chine. Indeed, by 1748 they had opened the manufacture Royale de vernis de la chine. C. Sargentson in Merchants and Luxury Markets: The Marchands-Merciers of Eighteenth Century Paris, London, 1996, however, has convincingly argued that there must have been a number of unknown craftsmen supplying such figures to the marchands-mercier, and indeed Parisian almanachs of the period often list several specialists in 'vernis'. Moreover, Jean Flix Watin, in his Le Peintre Doreur et Vernisseur of 1772, stated that ten different recipes for lacquer were being employed in Paris at that time, as well as going on to say that by the 1740s the Martin family was suffering from widespread competition, which had inevitably resulted in the prices for lacquer wares being forced down.
A Louis XV clock-garniture, embellished with Vincennes porcelain flowerheads and featuring flanking two-light candelabra mounted with identical figures was sold from the Blumenthal Collection at Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 2 December 1932, lot 79, pl.XXXIX.