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Lot Essay
Much like the sumptuous carpets of the same name, Savonnerie screens were highly prized during the 18th century and reserved almost exclusively for the use of the Royal family and princes of the blood or for the most prestigious diplomatic gifts. As Pierre Verlet has exhaustively shown (The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor: the Savonnerie, Fribourg, 1982, pp. 298-306), the screens were conceived primarily in two different sizes and served to block the drafts coming through a doorway at the entrance to a room. The larger ones were placed in the more public anterooms (chambres d'apparat) which saw much more coming and going, while the smaller ones- such as this example- were used in private apartments and notably in dining rooms where a door would have opened frequently.
The first screens appeared in 1707 when the Garde-Meuble bought 67 panels from the Dupont atelier at the Savonnerie. Only three painters produced the screen designs which were used and reused throughout the entire production lasting into the reign of Louis XV. Belin de Fontenay and Claude Audran were responsible for the earlier larger cartoons, while François Desportes, the well-known flower and bird painter executed the sketches (now preserved in the Bibliothèque de la Manufacture de Sèvres) which form the basis for the panels of this screen.
The Dupont workshop produced 18 panels of this small model between 1719 and 1720 and the Noinville workshop made a further 12 panels between 1721 and 1727. After a hiatus until 1734, production began anew and a further 70 panels were woven until production of this size screen stopped entirely in 1738.
The versions woven between 1734 and 1738 include two new subjects, both of which appear on this screen and enable us to date it accurately to the latter period:
-a sparrow-hawk depicted with a wading bird and a duck
-a spread-wing cockatoo surrounded by various birds
The first of these low screens was delivered to the Garde-Meuble on 18 March 1753, when it was described as follows:
six feuilles de paravent d'ouvrage de la Savonnerie fond pourpre représentant diferens oiseaux sur fond bleu de 24 pouces de largeur et 4 pieds 2 pouces de haut
The panels were delivered unmounted by the factory and then assembled by the upholsterer, normally into two screens of six panels each; although Verlet also notes the existence of four and five panel screens. This version of the low screen is particularly rare; only four other examples are presently recorded:
-two six-panel screens mounted on two sides (for a total of 12 panels) formerly in the Duvivier collection, are now in the Musée Nissim de Camondo (no. 141) and in a Parisian private collection (illustrated in Verlet, op.cit. fig. 48)
-an example of five panels in the Mobilier National (GMT 1161) illustrated in Verlet, op.cit., p. 300, fig. 183
-six panels (four of Louis XV date) mounted in 19th century frames from the collection of Eugene Kraemer, sold Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 28 April 1913, lots 150 and 376.
The first screens appeared in 1707 when the Garde-Meuble bought 67 panels from the Dupont atelier at the Savonnerie. Only three painters produced the screen designs which were used and reused throughout the entire production lasting into the reign of Louis XV. Belin de Fontenay and Claude Audran were responsible for the earlier larger cartoons, while François Desportes, the well-known flower and bird painter executed the sketches (now preserved in the Bibliothèque de la Manufacture de Sèvres) which form the basis for the panels of this screen.
The Dupont workshop produced 18 panels of this small model between 1719 and 1720 and the Noinville workshop made a further 12 panels between 1721 and 1727. After a hiatus until 1734, production began anew and a further 70 panels were woven until production of this size screen stopped entirely in 1738.
The versions woven between 1734 and 1738 include two new subjects, both of which appear on this screen and enable us to date it accurately to the latter period:
-a sparrow-hawk depicted with a wading bird and a duck
-a spread-wing cockatoo surrounded by various birds
The first of these low screens was delivered to the Garde-Meuble on 18 March 1753, when it was described as follows:
six feuilles de paravent d'ouvrage de la Savonnerie fond pourpre représentant diferens oiseaux sur fond bleu de 24 pouces de largeur et 4 pieds 2 pouces de haut
The panels were delivered unmounted by the factory and then assembled by the upholsterer, normally into two screens of six panels each; although Verlet also notes the existence of four and five panel screens. This version of the low screen is particularly rare; only four other examples are presently recorded:
-two six-panel screens mounted on two sides (for a total of 12 panels) formerly in the Duvivier collection, are now in the Musée Nissim de Camondo (no. 141) and in a Parisian private collection (illustrated in Verlet, op.cit. fig. 48)
-an example of five panels in the Mobilier National (GMT 1161) illustrated in Verlet, op.cit., p. 300, fig. 183
-six panels (four of Louis XV date) mounted in 19th century frames from the collection of Eugene Kraemer, sold Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 28 April 1913, lots 150 and 376.