THE PROPERTY OF THE MEIKLEOUR ESTATE TRUST
Sold by Order of the Trustees
The following sixty lots formed part of the celebrated collection of French furniture and objets d'art formed by Margaret, Baroness Keith and Nairne (1788-1867) and her husband Auguste-Charles-Joseph, comte de Flahaut de la Billarderie (1785-1870), natural son of Talleyrand (1754-1838), and nephew of the comte d'Angiviller, Marigny's nephew and successor as directeur-général des bâtiments du Roi. The Flahauts married in 1817 and spent fifty years together during which they maintained houses in Paris, London, Vienna and Scotland of considerable grandeur. The greater part of the collection became concentrated at Meikleour in Perthshire at the very end of the nineteenth century. Certain aspects of Flahaul's career and the couple's life together give an idea of the formation of the collection, its travels and ultimate home amidst the Lansdowne collection. First among these is Flahaut's colourful and peripatetic career. As a professional soldier he had been at Waterloo in 1815 as an Aide-de-Camp to Napoleon. Effectively in exile in England after the Restauration he pursued the heiress Margaret Mercer in the teeth of stiff opposition from her father Admiral Lord Keith (1747-1823), who reserved a special hatred for Bonapartistes. The bald facts of the next fifty years are that he was Minister in Berlin for a short and inconclusive period in 1831, French Ambassador to Vienna from 1841-8 and to London 1860-2. It is perhaps inevitable that the greater part of the collection was formed outside these dates, whether they were living in London or Paris, and more importantly the rather short periods of official appointment reflect both Flahauts place in the constantly-changing political and social world of France. Both adored politics and were at various times closely identified with both the Orlèans and Bonaparte families. This is the second, and perhaps the more important, aspect of their married life that affected the development of the collection. Whatever their political loyalty of the moment the Flahauts seem consciously to have projected an image in society of leading life on a pre-revolutionary scale. It was presumably both a social asset and a liability to appear as grand as the aristocrats of old. Flahaut's fairly limited official appointments may bear this out. Whatever the truth the Flahauts had an immensely wide circle of acquaintances that changed in response to current political conditions. The third element in their married life, and certainly the one that made the previous two possible, was Margaret Mercer's immense inheritance. One of Lord Keith's original objections to Flahaut had been his poverty but Margaret reputedly had an income of (7,000 a year even before she married in 1817. Their elder daughter Emily Jane Mercer Elphinstone de Flahaut (1819-1895) married the 4th Marquess of Lansdowne (d.1866) in 1843. It is through this marriage that much of the collection came into the Lansdowne family and it is the manuscript inventories and lists of division, now preserved at Bowood, that provide much of the information about the origins of individual pieces. Lord Lansdowne was himself a distinguished collector and it is probable that some pieces, particularly those with some English provenance, were acquired by him rather than by the Flahauts. Thus it is suggested that a combination of three elements - Flahaut's career, their social and political circles and his wife's inheritances - provide the pattern for the collection.
After they married in 1817 the Flhauts lived in London and Scotland for ten years. Madame de Flahaut had inherited the Mercer property at Meikleour in 1790 through her mother, Jean Mercer, great-grandaughter of Sir Laurence Mercer of Aldie and on her father's death in 1823 she came into the Keith estates in Fife including Tullyallan Castle (sometimes, even by her, spelt Tulliallan), built for Lord Keith by William Atkinson between 1817-1820. Few indicators exist of purchasing during this period. As a newly-built house Tullyallan was presumably adequately and fashionably furnished. Flahaut was apparently not welcome in France but he did apparently make two or three private visits alone to Paris in the early 1820s. It is from one of these, in 1823, that the first mention of French furniture appears. There is at Bowood a manuscript list in Madame de Flahaut's own handwriting of furniture belonging to me at Tulliallan, dated October 1853 (Box KF.40). There are four pieces recorded as having been bought in Paris in 1823, including lot 31 in this sale '1 small table in marqueterie... and piece of Sèvres china with a cock inlaid from Paris 1823'. This is among the earliest recorded purchases and it is interesting that it should be by Flahaut himself while in Paris alone on a discreet and possibly illegal visit. It would seem likely that the pieces were intended for Tullyallan, inherited in that year. All these pieces remained at Tullyallan until Madame de Flahalt died in 1867 so the balance of probability is that they did not follow the family on their later travels but remained in Scotalnd from 1823. Flahaut was sufficiently reconciled to the régime of Charles X to be able to return to France in mid-1827. The political machinations that allowed this and that it caused are discussed below but it is clear that from the outset the Flahaut's used their salon as a political weapon. Its furnishings must have formed a part of this. By October 1827 Lady Granville, the wife of the English Ambassador, was able to write 'Lady Keith's house is delightful'. Madame de Flahaut had inherited that title from her father in 1823 and was always known by it in England and to Englishmen. It would be logical for some furniture to accompany the couple from England to France in 1827 although it has not been possible to identify anything specific. At first they lived in a succession of leased houses, including 55 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. In mid-1830 they made what, for the collection, must have been the crucial purchase of the former Hôtel de Massa on the corner of the rue de la Charte (formerly rue d'Angoulême, now rue la Boétie) and the Champs Elysées.
The Hôtel de Massa was furnished in the period 1830-31 and quickly drew immense praise. The Maréchal de Castellane, no natural friend of the Flahauts, wrote very soon after that 'l'ameublement est magnifique, il y a un ensemble parfait, ce sont des formes d'anciens meubles et de belles étoffes, de mode il y a de longues années et qui le redeviennent'. This is a very significant comment because it is an early indication of the Flahaut's taste for the furniture of the Ancien Regime. Two manuscript bills exist at Bowood (FL23) from this period in Paris, one of which strongly reinforces this theory and points to another. It is from Bresson Jeune 'Marchand d'anciens Bronzes ainsi que d'anciennes Porcelaines; en général tout ce qui concerne l'antiquité...'. Five items were acquired for a total of 290 francs but most significantly the bill, which is only dated 1831, is made out to Mme Lacontess(sic). It is clear that furnishing continued apace in 1831 when the recently enobled Flahaut was away in Berlin on an abortive diplomatic mission. Just as the 1823 purchases were made by Flahaut alone it is likely that those of 1831 were made by his wife. They remained in the Hôtel de Massa throughout the 1830s but with frequent trips to England, particularly in the last years of the decade. Their life, and therefore collection, again becomes complicated in late 1841 when Flahaut was appointed Ambassador in Vienna. His wife appears to have spent fairly large parts of the next seven years in England although she clearly realised her role in consolidating Flahaut's position in Vienna. Lord Rokeby wrote to Thomas Raikes from Vienna on 23 December 1842 'Mde de Flahault has at last nearly finished her furnishing and arranging and nothing can be more comfortable and indeed more magnificent than her house and establishment... the other day they gave a large dinner to the Esterhazys and I never saw a table mieux montée or service better done'. Significantly the brilliant marriage of their daughter Emily to the 4th Marquess of Lansdowne happened in Vienna at the end of 1843. They certainly took their life there sufficiently seriously to maintain as grand an establishment as they had formerly in Paris. The next great establishment furnished by the Flahauts was to be in England in the mid-1850s. Although Flahaut managed to remain in favour with the new Emperor and played a large part in maintaining good relations with England in 1848-52, he was never again to enjoy a pivotal place in French political life. By this date a distinction can be drawn between the royal circle into which Flahaut was periodically admitted and the outer political body from which his increased, if irregular, anglicisation prevented full acceptance. Thiers maliciously described Flahaut as 'in some ways a foreigner' (S. de Bernady, Tr. Lucy Norton, Son of Talleyrand, English Ed., London, 1956, p.275). The house that was to occupy their attention from 1855 was Coventry House, 106 Piccadilly, that they leased from 1855-68. Flahaut was the French Ambassador from 1860-2 and it is clear that Coventry House was the home for the major part of the collection. A manuscript inventory of items at Coventry House in 1863, in Madame de Flahaut's hand, includes several of the major elements from the collection including 2 very fine vases, Oriental alabaster, mounted or mat (lot 60) and large clock - (Le Temps) en grilliote marble plinth (lot 29). It would seem therefore likely that the major phase of purchasing was in France in the early 1830's. Despite the apparent grandeur of their house in Vienna in the 1840s, there are no labels or manuscript references that suggest that a piece was bought there. Further pieces were presumably acquired for Coventry House although again specific references are few and inconclusive.
One type of reference that does exist in considerable number are personal. One of the most astonishing aspects of the Flahaut's life is their friendship and acquaintance with French royalty of whatever family over an immense period of time. It is difficult from an Anglo-Saxon viewpoint to understand the dexterity of Charles de Flahaut in remaining more or less in favour for the largest part of seventy years. As a young officer, the illegitimate son of Talleyrand, he became the lover of Hortense, wife of Louis Napoleon (d.1846), King of Holland. Caroline Murat, sister of the Emperor, attempted to prevent the affair simply because she wanted Flahaut for herself. After several false starts Hortense became Flahaut's lover circa 1808 and ultimately bore him a son in 1811, Monsieur de Morny. Despite his lack of funds he was welcomed by his old Whig acquaintances from Paris such as Lady Bessborough, Lady Granville and John Cam Hobhouse when he arrived in England in late 1815 (Bernady,op.cit., 1956, p.158). His pursuit of Margaret Mercer, later his wife, shows him aiming extremely high. There had been talk in 1814 of her engagement to the 6th Duke of Devonshire (d.1858) subsequently famous as the 'Bachelor Duke'. Despite lingering affection for Hortense Flahaut successfully claimed Margaret Mercer and married her in 1817. An interesting example of his political adaptability is provided by the fact that he managed to become friendly with the duc and duchesse d' Orleans, then living at Twickenham, the French Ambassador, Marquis d'Osmond, wrote to Richelieu, Louis XVIII's chief mininster, in March 1817 of a meeting with Lord Keith 'the fine old Admiral spoke to me with tears in his eyes of his great sorrow at seeing his daughter attached to a man who openly expresses his warm admiration for Bonaparte and regrets that he did not follow him to St. Helena' (Bernady,op.cit. 1956, p.157-8). Such contrasts form one of the patterns of the Flahauts and it is interesting that Lady Keith reinforced Flahaut's apparent paradoxical feelings rather than calmed them. In London in 1814, Margaret Mercer had identified herself with the fortunes of Princess Charlotte. Twenty years later, in Paris, Madame de Flahaut had staked everything on the duc d'Orleans, son of Louis Philippe. Much of Parisian society which and welcomed him before 1830 shunned him after as a usurper's son. Madame de Flahaut was a natural schemer. Talleyrand had written in 1832 'I am in the midst of Mme de Flahaut's continual intrigues. She is always with Lady Grey, making unpleasant remarks about the present government'. It demonstrates the extent to which she threw herself into French society after 1827. At first society detested her, resenting the fact that she deprived them of 'le beau Flahaut'. Lady Granville wrote soon after they had arrived 'Last night we had a pleasant sorée. Flahaut is a host, whist and talk, and every Frenchwoman and a few Poles and Russians in love with the said comte, and all detesting poor Lady Keith, who lies on her couch and returns the compliment'. Flahaut found himself in a comparable position in 1848. He had mistrusted Louis Philippe and the Orlèans as much as they really mistrusted him as a Bonapartist. Yet to a veteran of Waterloo, Louis Napoleon seemed a pale imitation of his great predecessor. Yet such was Flahaut's keeness to be in office he seriously considered an offer to be Ambassador in London in 1848 at a moment when he owed Louis Philippe nothing. He was certainly influenced by his wife who was a more committed Orléaniste than he. It was not until 1860 that Flahaut, as a distinguished elder statesman, was appointed Ambassador to England at a moment of differences. By then he was reconciled to the Emperor and his years as ambassador were undramatic.
After a lifetime of unsatisfactory compromise with authority Flahaut was at his most effective as a diplomat late in his life. His role in England was that of peacemaker which was not especially difficult since some of his oldest frieds formed the government. Coventry House was given up in 1863, soon after Flahaut had ceased to be Ambassador to London. This period marks the start of the dispersal of the collection, probably from its greatest concentration. Flahaut was appointed Chancellor of the Legion of honour and lived in the Hôtel de Salm, its headquarters, until his death on the eve of Sedan in 1870. [His efforts as patron of the arts continued. 'Le nouveau batîment, dû à l'Architecte Lejeune, d'un style très dépouillé, ouvre par une grande porte cochère sur une voûte qui conduit à l'ancienne cour des remises et à la cour d'Honneur'. (La Rue de Lille, Exhibition Catalogue, Institut Néerlandais, Paris, February 1983, p.191). Whilst Flahaut was in Paris earning this less than flattering epitaph, his wife remained in England.] Furniture and objects were removed to Scotland, whether Tullyallan or Meikleour, from where it was divided on Lady Keith's death in 1867..[Lady Lansdowne and her sister Georgine (Georgina) split the collection. Lady Lansdowne was already a widow and in the early 1870's Meikleour was rebuilt for her and what she must have considered her possessions. Only after her death in 1895 did her son remove parts of the collection to Bowood and particularly Lansdowne House where he maintained a political salon to compete with his grandmother's.
A PAIR OF CHARLES X ORMOLU-MOUNTED VINCENNES BLEU LAPIS POTS A FARD, the cylindrical bodies gilt with flower-sprays on a bleu lapis ground with spirally-fluted necks, bifurcated handles issuing from rams' masks and foliate socles, the porcelain circa 1754, the porcelain cracked 7½in. (19cm.) wide (2)
细节
A PAIR OF CHARLES X ORMOLU-MOUNTED VINCENNES BLEU LAPIS POTS A FARD, the cylindrical bodies gilt with flower-sprays on a bleu lapis ground with spirally-fluted necks, bifurcated handles issuing from rams' masks and foliate socles, the porcelain circa 1754, the porcelain cracked 7½in. (19cm.) wide (2)