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Lot Essay
Franois Rmond, matre doreur in 1774
These unusual wall-lights can confidently be attributed to the workshop of Franois Rmond. Thanks to his ledgers covering the period between 1779 and 1787, which survive at the Archives Nationales in Paris, this model can be first dated to 10 November 1785. In total, twenty-three pairs at 108 livres each were supplied to the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre between 1785 and 1787. They appeared indistinctively recorded as bras plaque or bras plateau, and a variant featured chains suspended from the gallery.
Amongst the purchasors of this model was Bonnefoy-Duplan, head of the Queen's Garde-Meuble, who bought six pairs with bobches riches et dcoupures ajustes de chaines, poires et oeufs, from Daguerre on November 22, 1785 for Marie-Antoinette's hameau.
THE KINSKY PAIR
The Princesse Kinsky also purchased a pair identical to the Alexander wall-lights, on two occasions. On 26 June 1786, Daguerre supplied at a cost of 150 livres une paire de bras deux lumires sur plaque carre en bronze dor d'or mat. These were subsequently returned for unexplained reasons, but reacquired on January 29, 1789, this time for 156 livres. As the princesse's property was seized by the revolutionary government at the time of her death in 1794, and the subsequent history of the Kinsky pair is unknown, any suggestion that the Alexander and Kinsky wall-lights may be one and the same is purely speculative.
A Hungarian aristocrat born Marie-Lopoldine-Monique, comtesse Plfy, Princesse Kinsky, was the widow of Franois-Joseph, prince Kinsky, who died in 1752 when she was only 23. In 1761 she moved to Paris, where she presided over a well-attended salon in her htel particulier located at 55 rue Saint-Dominique, which she furnished with the help of Daguerre in the most lavish la mode style. From the early 1770s up until the Revolution, she purchased from Daguerre a great number of ormolu wall-lights, candelabra, girandoles and clocks (C. Baulez, 'Le Luminaire de la Princesse Kinsky,' L'Estampille/L'Objet d'Art, May 1991, pp. 84-99) and these included the pair of candelabra by Rmond, sold anonymously at Christie's Monaco, 15 June 1997, lot 91.
FRANOIS RMOND
Unlike fellow artisans like Claude-Jean Pitoin, who was born into a celebrated dynasty of crafsmen and pursued the family tradition, Rmond was the son of a voiturier, who placed him as an apprentice in the workshop of the little-known matre-doreur Pierre-Antoine Vial in 1763. In spite of this, Rmond became one of the most celebrated ciseleur-doreurs under Louis XVI, working for a distinguished clientele comprising, amongst others, the comte d'Artois- for whom he supplied many bronzes d'ameublement for his cabinet turc at Versailles - his sister-in-law Marie-Antoinette, the duc de Penthivre and the comte d'Adhmar.
The extent and diversity of his work for numerous bnistes (Riesener, Roentgen and Frost), horlogers (Lpine, Festaux and Voisin), bronziers (Osmond, Saint-Germain, Floix and Gouthire) and marchands-merciers (Granchez, Julliot and Daguerre) was particularly oustanding. Such large-scale collaborative work was quite unusual and impressive for a single workshop, resulting in the frequent attribution of many of his pieces to other leading contemporary matres. However, thanks to the appearance of Rmond's ledgers on the Parisian artmarket in 1983, pieces which were originally thought to be by Gouthire, for instance, have now been re-identified with Rmond.
BLONDELET, DESIGNER OF THIS MODEL?
It is important to note that this model of wall-light was sold to several important clients prior to Rmond's first reference to wall-lights of this form: for four pairs, described as with deux lumires, dont les bobches sont poses sur des plaques dcores de mirzas, de chanes et de perles, dores d'or moulu, raison de 120 livres par paire, were commissioned by the intendant du Garde-Meuble Jean Haur and delivered on 28 October 1784 by the fondeur Blondelet for Marie-Antoinette's petits appartements at Versailles. Moreover, a pair was also ordered at the same time by Madame de Ville d'Avray for her bedroom at the htel du Garde-Meuble, where she resided with her husband Thierry de Ville d'Avray, also intendant du Garde-Meuble. According to Verlet, however, these could have been supplied by Rmond through Daguerre (P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dor's Franais du XVIIIe Sicle, Paris, 1987. p. 90, no. 97).
Very little is known about Blondelet except that he worked with Rmond on several occasions (Baulez, op.cit, p. 97-8). Thus whilst the authorship of this model remains unclear, it is certainly possible that Blondelet may be the one responsible for its creation, while Rmond, successfully producing and commercializing the model through Daguerre, gained the reputation for its ownership.
A set of four nearly identical wall-lights, formerly in the collection of Baroness Ren de Becker, is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (F. J. B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, New York, 1966, vol. II, cat. no. 238 A-D).
These unusual wall-lights can confidently be attributed to the workshop of Franois Rmond. Thanks to his ledgers covering the period between 1779 and 1787, which survive at the Archives Nationales in Paris, this model can be first dated to 10 November 1785. In total, twenty-three pairs at 108 livres each were supplied to the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre between 1785 and 1787. They appeared indistinctively recorded as bras plaque or bras plateau, and a variant featured chains suspended from the gallery.
Amongst the purchasors of this model was Bonnefoy-Duplan, head of the Queen's Garde-Meuble, who bought six pairs with bobches riches et dcoupures ajustes de chaines, poires et oeufs, from Daguerre on November 22, 1785 for Marie-Antoinette's hameau.
THE KINSKY PAIR
The Princesse Kinsky also purchased a pair identical to the Alexander wall-lights, on two occasions. On 26 June 1786, Daguerre supplied at a cost of 150 livres une paire de bras deux lumires sur plaque carre en bronze dor d'or mat. These were subsequently returned for unexplained reasons, but reacquired on January 29, 1789, this time for 156 livres. As the princesse's property was seized by the revolutionary government at the time of her death in 1794, and the subsequent history of the Kinsky pair is unknown, any suggestion that the Alexander and Kinsky wall-lights may be one and the same is purely speculative.
A Hungarian aristocrat born Marie-Lopoldine-Monique, comtesse Plfy, Princesse Kinsky, was the widow of Franois-Joseph, prince Kinsky, who died in 1752 when she was only 23. In 1761 she moved to Paris, where she presided over a well-attended salon in her htel particulier located at 55 rue Saint-Dominique, which she furnished with the help of Daguerre in the most lavish la mode style. From the early 1770s up until the Revolution, she purchased from Daguerre a great number of ormolu wall-lights, candelabra, girandoles and clocks (C. Baulez, 'Le Luminaire de la Princesse Kinsky,' L'Estampille/L'Objet d'Art, May 1991, pp. 84-99) and these included the pair of candelabra by Rmond, sold anonymously at Christie's Monaco, 15 June 1997, lot 91.
FRANOIS RMOND
Unlike fellow artisans like Claude-Jean Pitoin, who was born into a celebrated dynasty of crafsmen and pursued the family tradition, Rmond was the son of a voiturier, who placed him as an apprentice in the workshop of the little-known matre-doreur Pierre-Antoine Vial in 1763. In spite of this, Rmond became one of the most celebrated ciseleur-doreurs under Louis XVI, working for a distinguished clientele comprising, amongst others, the comte d'Artois- for whom he supplied many bronzes d'ameublement for his cabinet turc at Versailles - his sister-in-law Marie-Antoinette, the duc de Penthivre and the comte d'Adhmar.
The extent and diversity of his work for numerous bnistes (Riesener, Roentgen and Frost), horlogers (Lpine, Festaux and Voisin), bronziers (Osmond, Saint-Germain, Floix and Gouthire) and marchands-merciers (Granchez, Julliot and Daguerre) was particularly oustanding. Such large-scale collaborative work was quite unusual and impressive for a single workshop, resulting in the frequent attribution of many of his pieces to other leading contemporary matres. However, thanks to the appearance of Rmond's ledgers on the Parisian artmarket in 1983, pieces which were originally thought to be by Gouthire, for instance, have now been re-identified with Rmond.
BLONDELET, DESIGNER OF THIS MODEL?
It is important to note that this model of wall-light was sold to several important clients prior to Rmond's first reference to wall-lights of this form: for four pairs, described as with deux lumires, dont les bobches sont poses sur des plaques dcores de mirzas, de chanes et de perles, dores d'or moulu, raison de 120 livres par paire, were commissioned by the intendant du Garde-Meuble Jean Haur and delivered on 28 October 1784 by the fondeur Blondelet for Marie-Antoinette's petits appartements at Versailles. Moreover, a pair was also ordered at the same time by Madame de Ville d'Avray for her bedroom at the htel du Garde-Meuble, where she resided with her husband Thierry de Ville d'Avray, also intendant du Garde-Meuble. According to Verlet, however, these could have been supplied by Rmond through Daguerre (P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dor's Franais du XVIIIe Sicle, Paris, 1987. p. 90, no. 97).
Very little is known about Blondelet except that he worked with Rmond on several occasions (Baulez, op.cit, p. 97-8). Thus whilst the authorship of this model remains unclear, it is certainly possible that Blondelet may be the one responsible for its creation, while Rmond, successfully producing and commercializing the model through Daguerre, gained the reputation for its ownership.
A set of four nearly identical wall-lights, formerly in the collection of Baroness Ren de Becker, is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (F. J. B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, New York, 1966, vol. II, cat. no. 238 A-D).