Lot Essay
Martin Carlin, maître in 1766
Jean-Jacques Perre le Jeune, flourished 1767-1800.
Henri-Martin Prévost, flourished 1757-97.
Martin Carlin (1766-85) was born in the principality of Baden and came to Paris before 1759 and set up as an artisan libre in the Grande Rue de Faubourg Saint-Antoine. Although never appointed as ébéniste de la Couronne, Carlin supplied large quantities to the Royal family through the marchands-merciers, working extensively for Simon-Philippe Poirier and Dominique Daguerre in particular. Carlin is most celebrated for his elegant Transitional and Louis XVI furniture enriched with Sèvres plaques or Japanese lacquer.
An extremely closely related table en chiffonnière, supplied by Carlin to the Grand-Duchess Marie-Feodorovna for the Palace of Pavlosk and also incorporating a Sèvres porcelain plaque dated 1782, was sold anonymously at Christie's Geneva, 8 May 1973, lot 61. Of identical form, these tables en chiffonnière display the lighter, freer design of Carlin's later oeuvre, and this 'pittoresque' approach is mirrored in the decoration of the plaques, with their floral sprays and posies. The archives of the Manufacture de Sèvres (MN 5 V1.'2 20 bis Ve fol. 24), records that Pierre painted the plaque on 10 August 1782: une plaque ronde.Ière bordure, roses et barbeaux. It is interesting to note that Madame Tallandier, who specialised in fonds pointillés, painted a large plaque the same year - une grande plaque ronde id. 6.1.
Related tables en chiffonnière are mentioned in the Inventory drawn up following Carlin's death in 1785: trois tables rondes et une ovale à entrejambes et tablettes entre les pieds plaquées en marqueterie.
This table en chiffonnière is exactly the style of refined neo-classical furniture that the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre marketed so successfully in England in the 1790s. Christie's held two sales - one anonymously but probably the stock of Daguerre, on 15-17 March 1790, the other, on 25 March 1791 of SUPERB ARTICLES IN FRENCH OR-MOULU...IMPORTED FROM PARIS BY MONS. DAGUERRE, which contained numerous related items. It is, therefore, extremely interesting to note that Frances, Viscountess Irwin, purchased lots 55, 71 and 79 in the latter. This interest in French objets and bronzes d'ameublements in the taste expounded by Daguerre makes her an extremely likely candidate to have acquired this table en chiffonnière.
Her daughter Isabella, however, a confidante of George, Prince of Wales (later George IV), who married Francis, 2nd Marquis of Hertford in 1776, is also a strong possibility. The Inventory of her possessions at Hertford House, Manchester Square, taken following her death in 1834, shows that she shared her mother's taste in French furniture and objets, some of which were sold at Phillips, 16 June 1834, (see R Savill, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1988, vol. III, p. 933)
Jean-Jacques Perre le Jeune, flourished 1767-1800.
Henri-Martin Prévost, flourished 1757-97.
Martin Carlin (1766-85) was born in the principality of Baden and came to Paris before 1759 and set up as an artisan libre in the Grande Rue de Faubourg Saint-Antoine. Although never appointed as ébéniste de la Couronne, Carlin supplied large quantities to the Royal family through the marchands-merciers, working extensively for Simon-Philippe Poirier and Dominique Daguerre in particular. Carlin is most celebrated for his elegant Transitional and Louis XVI furniture enriched with Sèvres plaques or Japanese lacquer.
An extremely closely related table en chiffonnière, supplied by Carlin to the Grand-Duchess Marie-Feodorovna for the Palace of Pavlosk and also incorporating a Sèvres porcelain plaque dated 1782, was sold anonymously at Christie's Geneva, 8 May 1973, lot 61. Of identical form, these tables en chiffonnière display the lighter, freer design of Carlin's later oeuvre, and this 'pittoresque' approach is mirrored in the decoration of the plaques, with their floral sprays and posies. The archives of the Manufacture de Sèvres (MN 5 V1.'2 20 bis Ve fol. 24), records that Pierre painted the plaque on 10 August 1782: une plaque ronde.Ière bordure, roses et barbeaux. It is interesting to note that Madame Tallandier, who specialised in fonds pointillés, painted a large plaque the same year - une grande plaque ronde id. 6.1.
Related tables en chiffonnière are mentioned in the Inventory drawn up following Carlin's death in 1785: trois tables rondes et une ovale à entrejambes et tablettes entre les pieds plaquées en marqueterie.
This table en chiffonnière is exactly the style of refined neo-classical furniture that the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre marketed so successfully in England in the 1790s. Christie's held two sales - one anonymously but probably the stock of Daguerre, on 15-17 March 1790, the other, on 25 March 1791 of SUPERB ARTICLES IN FRENCH OR-MOULU...IMPORTED FROM PARIS BY MONS. DAGUERRE, which contained numerous related items. It is, therefore, extremely interesting to note that Frances, Viscountess Irwin, purchased lots 55, 71 and 79 in the latter. This interest in French objets and bronzes d'ameublements in the taste expounded by Daguerre makes her an extremely likely candidate to have acquired this table en chiffonnière.
Her daughter Isabella, however, a confidante of George, Prince of Wales (later George IV), who married Francis, 2nd Marquis of Hertford in 1776, is also a strong possibility. The Inventory of her possessions at Hertford House, Manchester Square, taken following her death in 1834, shows that she shared her mother's taste in French furniture and objets, some of which were sold at Phillips, 16 June 1834, (see R Savill, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1988, vol. III, p. 933)