Lot Essay
These two pairs of wall-lights are identifiable with a bill from the marchand mercier Simon Philippe Poirier
Vendüe a Milor Coventry Par Poirier Md. a Paris
Rue St Honore
Du 9 7bre 1763
Louis
26 Deux paires de bras a 2 branches a l'antique premiere
grandeur . . . . . . . . . . . a 312 624
Simon-Philippe Poirier (1720-1785) was the most important marchand-mercier in the mid-eighteenth century. He not only dealt in all forms of luxury goods but played an important creative role, acting as a catalyst with designers and craftsmen to create new forms and fashions. He was instrumental in the creation of the neo-classical style and held a virtual monopoly on porcelain-mounted furniture, a technique that he pioneered and perfected.
In the Sèvres factory descriptions, premiere grandeur means the largest size, with deuxième and troisième being the smaller versions, but there is no indication Poirier followed the same practice. Indeed in December 1766 he sold another pair of wall-lights to Lord Cov entry which he described as 'Une paire de Bras a trois branches en bronz e doré d'or moulu Grand model à l'antique', which cost more than d ouble the price of each of these two pairs, suggesting that they were m uch larger.
Poirier's 1763 bill makes the Croome wall-lights among the earliest recorded examples in the neo-classical style. Eriksen (op. cit., p.98) notes that two pairs of sconces, almost certainly made in the neo-classical style for Lalive de Jully, were sold in his sale in 1769 and he also records a pair signed by Philippe Caffieri (1714-1774) and dated 1759. The Croome wall-lights predate the other well-known datable examples - such as those sent by the marchand-mercier Testard to the Court at Parma in 1764. The majority of early neo-classical urn-capped wall-lights are dated to between 1765 and 1770 on the basis of those supplied by Caffiéri for the Lazienki Palace, Warsaw. Caffiéri's drawing for these lights in the University Library, Warsaw is signed and dated 1765 ('Acquisitions Made by the Department of Decorative Arts in 1982', The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, vol. I, 1983, pp.52-53).
In this context it is interesting that among Lord Coventry's French accounts there is a bill of loading dated 6? September 1763 recording the shipment of 'une petite Caisse Embalée Conten... Librairie' being sent to Lord Coventry in London by Mr Caffieri (possibly a bookseller). The name Caffiery appears in another account for shipping, dated 23 September 1768.
A pair of wall-lights, apparently of almost the same model as the Croome examples is at Pavlovsk (Pavlovsk: Palace and Park, Aurora edition, 1976, )
Vendüe a Milor Coventry Par Poirier Md. a Paris
Rue St Honore
Du 9 7bre 1763
Louis
26 Deux paires de bras a 2 branches a l'antique premiere
grandeur . . . . . . . . . . . a 312 624
Simon-Philippe Poirier (1720-1785) was the most important marchand-mercier in the mid-eighteenth century. He not only dealt in all forms of luxury goods but played an important creative role, acting as a catalyst with designers and craftsmen to create new forms and fashions. He was instrumental in the creation of the neo-classical style and held a virtual monopoly on porcelain-mounted furniture, a technique that he pioneered and perfected.
In the Sèvres factory descriptions, premiere grandeur means the largest size, with deuxième and troisième being the smaller versions, but there is no indication Poirier followed the same practice. Indeed in December 1766 he sold another pair of wall-lights to Lord Cov entry which he described as 'Une paire de Bras a trois branches en bronz e doré d'or moulu Grand model à l'antique', which cost more than d ouble the price of each of these two pairs, suggesting that they were m uch larger.
Poirier's 1763 bill makes the Croome wall-lights among the earliest recorded examples in the neo-classical style. Eriksen (op. cit., p.98) notes that two pairs of sconces, almost certainly made in the neo-classical style for Lalive de Jully, were sold in his sale in 1769 and he also records a pair signed by Philippe Caffieri (1714-1774) and dated 1759. The Croome wall-lights predate the other well-known datable examples - such as those sent by the marchand-mercier Testard to the Court at Parma in 1764. The majority of early neo-classical urn-capped wall-lights are dated to between 1765 and 1770 on the basis of those supplied by Caffiéri for the Lazienki Palace, Warsaw. Caffiéri's drawing for these lights in the University Library, Warsaw is signed and dated 1765 ('Acquisitions Made by the Department of Decorative Arts in 1982', The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, vol. I, 1983, pp.52-53).
In this context it is interesting that among Lord Coventry's French accounts there is a bill of loading dated 6? September 1763 recording the shipment of 'une petite Caisse Embalée Conten... Librairie' being sent to Lord Coventry in London by Mr Caffieri (possibly a bookseller). The name Caffiery appears in another account for shipping, dated 23 September 1768.
A pair of wall-lights, apparently of almost the same model as the Croome examples is at Pavlovsk (Pavlovsk: Palace and Park, Aurora edition, 1976, )