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Lot Essay
The C couronn poinon was a tax mark employed in France between March 1745 and February 1749 on any alloy containing copper.
These sinuous chenets relect the most exuberant phase of the rocaille style, as popularised by ornemanistes such as Franois Roumier (1701-48), who was appointed sculpteur ordinaire du roi in 1721 and Jacques Lajoe. Probably executed circa 1730-35, they are almost certainly those that feature in the illustrated archival albums of the Collection Maciet, which are now held in the Muse des Arts Dcoratifs, Paris.
Frustratingly, their attribution remains difficult to propose with any confidence, as the production of both bronziers and matre-fondeurs at that time is scarcely documented. In view of their powerful ornament and contraposto movement, as well as the exceptional quality of the chasing, it would seem fair to conclude that they were executed by one of the celebrated matres of the period. However, this could embrace any of the following:- Jacques Caffieri, the brothers Sbastien-Antoine and Paul-Ambroise Slodtz, the brothers Jean-Baptiste and Nicolas Fuzelier (recorded as experts de bronzes in the Inventory taken following the death of Andr-Charles Boulle in 1732), Nicolas Vassou (who worked for the marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux), and Jacques Confesseur, without excluding the possible intervention of celebrated silversmiths and ornemanistes such as Thomas Germain and Jean-Claude Duplessis (who is known to have executed a brasero for Sultan Mahmud 1st, which is still conserved at Topkapi Palace, Istanbul).
An extremely closely related pair of chenets, undoubtedly executed by the same hand but with winged putto surmounting the rocaille C-scrolls, was sold anonymously at Christie's Monaco, 20 June 1992, lot 90 (FF1,221,000). Coincidentally, the characterisation of the putti share much in common with Roumier's design. Interestingly, these latter chenets also display the same variations in chasing and modelling that accentuate both the sense of movement and asymmetry on the Alexander chenets. In view of the fact that one of the Alexander chenets is a contemporary aftercast of another - a widespread technique in the 18th century for complex gilt-bronze models that were not one-offs - and that the bases of the putto chenets are of apparently identical form and size, it is tempting to suggest that these two pairs of chenets, as well as being modelled and cast in the same workshop and almost simultaneously, may originally have been supplied together.
These sinuous chenets relect the most exuberant phase of the rocaille style, as popularised by ornemanistes such as Franois Roumier (1701-48), who was appointed sculpteur ordinaire du roi in 1721 and Jacques Lajoe. Probably executed circa 1730-35, they are almost certainly those that feature in the illustrated archival albums of the Collection Maciet, which are now held in the Muse des Arts Dcoratifs, Paris.
Frustratingly, their attribution remains difficult to propose with any confidence, as the production of both bronziers and matre-fondeurs at that time is scarcely documented. In view of their powerful ornament and contraposto movement, as well as the exceptional quality of the chasing, it would seem fair to conclude that they were executed by one of the celebrated matres of the period. However, this could embrace any of the following:- Jacques Caffieri, the brothers Sbastien-Antoine and Paul-Ambroise Slodtz, the brothers Jean-Baptiste and Nicolas Fuzelier (recorded as experts de bronzes in the Inventory taken following the death of Andr-Charles Boulle in 1732), Nicolas Vassou (who worked for the marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux), and Jacques Confesseur, without excluding the possible intervention of celebrated silversmiths and ornemanistes such as Thomas Germain and Jean-Claude Duplessis (who is known to have executed a brasero for Sultan Mahmud 1st, which is still conserved at Topkapi Palace, Istanbul).
An extremely closely related pair of chenets, undoubtedly executed by the same hand but with winged putto surmounting the rocaille C-scrolls, was sold anonymously at Christie's Monaco, 20 June 1992, lot 90 (FF1,221,000). Coincidentally, the characterisation of the putti share much in common with Roumier's design. Interestingly, these latter chenets also display the same variations in chasing and modelling that accentuate both the sense of movement and asymmetry on the Alexander chenets. In view of the fact that one of the Alexander chenets is a contemporary aftercast of another - a widespread technique in the 18th century for complex gilt-bronze models that were not one-offs - and that the bases of the putto chenets are of apparently identical form and size, it is tempting to suggest that these two pairs of chenets, as well as being modelled and cast in the same workshop and almost simultaneously, may originally have been supplied together.