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Lot Essay
Bernard II Van Risen Burgh, matre in 1730
Originally conceived to support a Svres porcelain plateau, this table was almost certainly commissioned from BVRB by the marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier (1720-85). As the Archives de la Manufacture de Svres reveal, the latter held a vitual monopoly over the production of plateaux, purchasing both plateaux Courteille and chiffonre (as they were called without handles) to the value of 300 livres in 1761, 1762 and 1764, and another at a cost of 360 livres in 1763. Although Lazare Duvaux is known to have sold M. Boucher a table mounted with a Meissen porcelain cabaret as early as 1748, it is Poirier who is credited with the idea of combining the previously disparate elements of a plateau courteille, which originally served as a tray for cups and teapot, without its handles, with a table frame, the porcelain being much less sensitive to heat and therefore far more practical.
The distinctive ormolu border to the top, although often pierced, as well as the angle-mounts, escutcheons, handles and sabots are characteristic of BVRB's oeuvre and feature on four tables incontrovertibly by BVRB (A. Sassoon, 'New Research on a table stamped by Bernard van Risenburgh', The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, Malibu, 1981, pp.167-74). Of these, two tables, both formerly in the Hillingdon Collection, are at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of which has a Svres porcelain plaque dated 1763, whilst the second has an unmarked plaque dated between 1758-63 (discussed and illustrated in W. Rieder, "'B.V.R.B.' at the Met", Apollo, January, 1994, p.39, figs.11-12); another, with plaque dated 1764, is in the Louvre (A. Sassoon, ibid., fig.7); and the last is in a French Private Collection (ibid, fig. 15). Further examples, unstamped but undoubtedly by BVRB, are in the Muse des Arts Dcoratifs, Paris (ibid., fig.14) and two in the Louvre (ibid., fig.7). One of these last two tables, now with a white marble top, also originally supported a porcelain top (D. Alcouffe et al, Furniture Collections in the Louvre, Dijon, 1993, vol.1, nos.50-1, pp.168-171), which is now in the J. Paul Getty Museum (ibid., fig.1).
Originally conceived to support a Svres porcelain plateau, this table was almost certainly commissioned from BVRB by the marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier (1720-85). As the Archives de la Manufacture de Svres reveal, the latter held a vitual monopoly over the production of plateaux, purchasing both plateaux Courteille and chiffonre (as they were called without handles) to the value of 300 livres in 1761, 1762 and 1764, and another at a cost of 360 livres in 1763. Although Lazare Duvaux is known to have sold M. Boucher a table mounted with a Meissen porcelain cabaret as early as 1748, it is Poirier who is credited with the idea of combining the previously disparate elements of a plateau courteille, which originally served as a tray for cups and teapot, without its handles, with a table frame, the porcelain being much less sensitive to heat and therefore far more practical.
The distinctive ormolu border to the top, although often pierced, as well as the angle-mounts, escutcheons, handles and sabots are characteristic of BVRB's oeuvre and feature on four tables incontrovertibly by BVRB (A. Sassoon, 'New Research on a table stamped by Bernard van Risenburgh', The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, Malibu, 1981, pp.167-74). Of these, two tables, both formerly in the Hillingdon Collection, are at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of which has a Svres porcelain plaque dated 1763, whilst the second has an unmarked plaque dated between 1758-63 (discussed and illustrated in W. Rieder, "'B.V.R.B.' at the Met", Apollo, January, 1994, p.39, figs.11-12); another, with plaque dated 1764, is in the Louvre (A. Sassoon, ibid., fig.7); and the last is in a French Private Collection (ibid, fig. 15). Further examples, unstamped but undoubtedly by BVRB, are in the Muse des Arts Dcoratifs, Paris (ibid., fig.14) and two in the Louvre (ibid., fig.7). One of these last two tables, now with a white marble top, also originally supported a porcelain top (D. Alcouffe et al, Furniture Collections in the Louvre, Dijon, 1993, vol.1, nos.50-1, pp.168-171), which is now in the J. Paul Getty Museum (ibid., fig.1).