Lot Essay
Philippe Poitou (1642-1709), ébéniste to the duc d' Orléans.
This miroir de trumeau is closely related to a number of mirrors delivered for the duc d'Orléans before 1724. Of the seven such mirrors listed at the Palais Royal or the château de Saint-Cloud, that numbered 2951 was described as:
'un miroir à bordure de glace et ornements de bronze doré d'or moulu avec son chapiteau aussi de glace et ses ornements de bronze doré d'or moulu. La glace dudit miroir de soixante six poulces de haut par quarante trois poulces de large 800 livres'.
The largest mirror recorded in the inventory following the death of the Régent, however, surmounted by a mask cresting, measured 221 cm. high by 158 cm. wide and this testifies to the dramatic advances in the manufacture of mirror glass since the construction of the Galerie des Glaces at Versailles in 1679. A process ('coulage de la glace') invented in 1687 had enabled mirror glass to be made in sizes hitherto considered impossible, and in 1698 a piece 225 cm. high by 120 cm. wide was produced at the Manufacture Royale de la Porte Saint-Antoine.
It was Robert de Cotte, premier architecte du Roy who, according to Jean-Francois Blondel, considered himself to be the first to introduce large-scale mirrors to French interiors and by the time of the death of Louis XIV there were 298 mirrors in the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, several of which had gilt-bronze borders. These earliest mirrors with gilt-bronze borders may well have been made in the atelier of Philippe Poitou, who had been appointed ébéniste to the duc d'Orléans in circa 1700. Perhaps helped by Charles Cressent (1685-1768), who worked as his apprentice, Poitou is known to have produced his own bronze mounts, of which he had a large stock, and gilt-bronze mirror-frames, as he displayed two such mirrors in his workshop. Moreover, the large scale of these mirrors was also possible, as an entry in the 1709 inventory reveals:
'grand miroir de trente six pouces de glaces de haut sur vingt six de large le tout ou environ dans sa bordure à pilastre et chapiteau aussy de glace avec ornements et filets de bois doré'.
Cressent, who subsequently took over Poitou's atelier and married his widow, expanded the workshop dramatically and is known to have manufactured several mirrors in gilt-bronze, such as that sold from the collection of M. Hubert de Givenchy, Christie's Monaco, 4 December 1993, lot 43 (4,444,000 FF).
The decoration of this mirror reflects the influence of the ornamentiste Daniel Marot (1663-1752), who engraved a closely related mirror-pattern, with segmental pedimented cresting in his Oeuvres of 1712 (illustrated in Das Ornamentwerk des Daniel Marot, Berlin, 1892, p.166). However, related ornament to the cresting of this mirror also featured in a drawing by Jean Bérain (1640-1711), Dessinateur de la Chambre de Roy, who produced a number of designs for chimneys before 1708 (Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, illustrated in J. de la Gorce, Bérain Dessinateur du Roi Soleil, Paris, 1986, p.39). A mirror of virtually identical pattern, but in bois doré, was sold anonymously at Audap-Godeau-Solanet, 14 June 1991, lot 99.
This miroir de trumeau is closely related to a number of mirrors delivered for the duc d'Orléans before 1724. Of the seven such mirrors listed at the Palais Royal or the château de Saint-Cloud, that numbered 2951 was described as:
'un miroir à bordure de glace et ornements de bronze doré d'or moulu avec son chapiteau aussi de glace et ses ornements de bronze doré d'or moulu. La glace dudit miroir de soixante six poulces de haut par quarante trois poulces de large 800 livres'.
The largest mirror recorded in the inventory following the death of the Régent, however, surmounted by a mask cresting, measured 221 cm. high by 158 cm. wide and this testifies to the dramatic advances in the manufacture of mirror glass since the construction of the Galerie des Glaces at Versailles in 1679. A process ('coulage de la glace') invented in 1687 had enabled mirror glass to be made in sizes hitherto considered impossible, and in 1698 a piece 225 cm. high by 120 cm. wide was produced at the Manufacture Royale de la Porte Saint-Antoine.
It was Robert de Cotte, premier architecte du Roy who, according to Jean-Francois Blondel, considered himself to be the first to introduce large-scale mirrors to French interiors and by the time of the death of Louis XIV there were 298 mirrors in the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, several of which had gilt-bronze borders. These earliest mirrors with gilt-bronze borders may well have been made in the atelier of Philippe Poitou, who had been appointed ébéniste to the duc d'Orléans in circa 1700. Perhaps helped by Charles Cressent (1685-1768), who worked as his apprentice, Poitou is known to have produced his own bronze mounts, of which he had a large stock, and gilt-bronze mirror-frames, as he displayed two such mirrors in his workshop. Moreover, the large scale of these mirrors was also possible, as an entry in the 1709 inventory reveals:
'grand miroir de trente six pouces de glaces de haut sur vingt six de large le tout ou environ dans sa bordure à pilastre et chapiteau aussy de glace avec ornements et filets de bois doré'.
Cressent, who subsequently took over Poitou's atelier and married his widow, expanded the workshop dramatically and is known to have manufactured several mirrors in gilt-bronze, such as that sold from the collection of M. Hubert de Givenchy, Christie's Monaco, 4 December 1993, lot 43 (4,444,000 FF).
The decoration of this mirror reflects the influence of the ornamentiste Daniel Marot (1663-1752), who engraved a closely related mirror-pattern, with segmental pedimented cresting in his Oeuvres of 1712 (illustrated in Das Ornamentwerk des Daniel Marot, Berlin, 1892, p.166). However, related ornament to the cresting of this mirror also featured in a drawing by Jean Bérain (1640-1711), Dessinateur de la Chambre de Roy, who produced a number of designs for chimneys before 1708 (Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, illustrated in J. de la Gorce, Bérain Dessinateur du Roi Soleil, Paris, 1986, p.39). A mirror of virtually identical pattern, but in bois doré, was sold anonymously at Audap-Godeau-Solanet, 14 June 1991, lot 99.