A LOUIS XVI ORMOLU ÉCRITOIRE

Details

A LOUIS XVI ORMOLU ÉCRITOIRE
CIRCA 1775

Of rounded rectangular form and fitted with two beaded classical vessels cast with lion's masks suspending tasselled drapery swags fitted with acanthus-cast lids reversing to bobêches centering a similarly cast bell, a well and pair of blotters cast with fruiting finials above a panelled frieze fitted with berried laurel on spread-winged eagle supports, cast throughout with leaf-tip banding-8in. (20cm.) high, 12in. (30.5cm.) wide, 8¾in. (22cm.) deep

Provenance

Marquis de Galard
Joseph Bardac
Mortimer L. Schiff, New York, sold Christie's London, 22 June 1938, lot 43
Baronne Renée de Becker

Literature

F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, vol. II, 1966, p. 391, no. 205
P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Francais du XVIIIe Siècle, 1987, p. 138, fig. 175

Exhibited

New York, Parke-Bernet Galleries, Art Treasures Exhibition, 1955, no. 246

Lot Essay

A very similar inkstand which is engraved with the arms of Savoie is now in a private European collection and was formerly in the collection of the Prince de Beauvau, sold hôtel Drouot, Paris, 21 April 1865, lot 22.

A number of the neoclassical motifs on this lot, notably the eagle supports, first appear in the designs of Jean-Louis Prieur for Stanislas-Augustus, King of Poland in 1765-1766 (see S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France, 1974, pp. 352, 390-391, pl. 205, 209).