Lot Essay
This chimneypiece is executed on a scale and level of quality only found on Thomire's Imperial commissions. It is identical (and possibly the pair) to one also executed in green granite ordered by the garde meuble impérial for the principal salon in the Empress's apartments at Compiègne. The chimneypiece was installed as part of Napoleon's complete restoration of the old royal palace in 1809 and enables us to date this lot to that time. The gilt bronze mounts of extraordinary quality and design are also identical to those on a console table in thuya which Thomire offered to the government in 1807 as collateral for a loan (illustrated in D. Alcouffe et al., Furniture Collections in the Louvre, vol. I, 1993, pp. 308-309, no. 105). Another chimney piece with the same frieze of garlands and torchères was delivered in 1804 for the salon of Prince Eugène de Beauharnais in his hôtel on the rue de Lille (now the German Embassy) and a console with a very similar frieze and the label of the marchand Martin Eloy Lignereux, formerly in the collections of the Princes Esterhàzy, is now in the collection of the Museum of Decorative Arts, Budapest.
GENERAL LEMAROIS
A witness to the marriage of Napoléon I to Josephine on March 8, 1796, Jean Léonor François Comte Lemarois (1776-1836) became aide-de-camp to the Emperor as well as Division General. He was noted for heroism at Austerlitz and later at Iéna, and was named governor of Magdebourg.
On August 28, 1806, General Lemarois purchased a hôtel in Paris at the intersection of the rue de Grammont and the Boulevard des Italiens in the newly fashionable quartier near the Arc de Triomphe. In the inventory taken after General Lemarois' death in 1835, "33 pièces qui sont mémoires de travaux de construction et réparations faits dans l'hôtel" are mentioned. In the same inventory of 1835, numerous consoles and columns in green granite appear. However, no chimneypieces are described as they would have been considered part of the building itself. In 1829, the hôtel was rented to the Cercle de l'Union and the decorations were in part removed to the Château de Lonray (Orne) before the final demolition of the hôtel at the end of the 19th century.
GENERAL LEMAROIS
A witness to the marriage of Napoléon I to Josephine on March 8, 1796, Jean Léonor François Comte Lemarois (1776-1836) became aide-de-camp to the Emperor as well as Division General. He was noted for heroism at Austerlitz and later at Iéna, and was named governor of Magdebourg.
On August 28, 1806, General Lemarois purchased a hôtel in Paris at the intersection of the rue de Grammont and the Boulevard des Italiens in the newly fashionable quartier near the Arc de Triomphe. In the inventory taken after General Lemarois' death in 1835, "33 pièces qui sont mémoires de travaux de construction et réparations faits dans l'hôtel" are mentioned. In the same inventory of 1835, numerous consoles and columns in green granite appear. However, no chimneypieces are described as they would have been considered part of the building itself. In 1829, the hôtel was rented to the Cercle de l'Union and the decorations were in part removed to the Château de Lonray (Orne) before the final demolition of the hôtel at the end of the 19th century.