拍品專文
In April 1755, the marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux delivered to Madame de Pompadour:-
une grille de cheminée pour les bains composée d'un cygne dans des roseaux en bronze doré d'or moulu, modèle fait exprès avec les poupées 550 1., le port à l'hôtel
They were supplied for the bains of her Parisian hôtel, the hôtel d'Evreux (now the Elysée Palace), which Madame de Pompadour had acquired in December 1753. According to the duc de Luynes, extensive refurbishment followed. La Marquise de Pompadour
a fait changer le petit appartement de M. Le Comte d'Evreux et l'a fait augmenter d'une antichambre, d'une salle à manger, d'un cabinet de toilette et de plusieurs garderobes
The chambre des Bains was made octagonal and the doors designed to incorporate mirrored panels, with the feux a cygnes placed in the fireplace opposite the alcove
A pair of chenets of the same model the only other example known, cast with further reeds, formerly in the Blumenthal collection and now in a French private collection, correspond extremely closely with Lazare Duvaux's description in his Journal. They were sold after the death of la marquise, as they are not recorded in the collection her brother and heir, the marquis de Marigny
Another pair of feux à cygnes is mentioned forty years later in the inventory of the possessions of Madame Lorimier de Chamilly, wife of the premier valet de chambre of Louis XVI:-
un feu orné de cuivre doré d'or moulu représentant deux cignes 900 l.
The use of the phrase modèle fait exprès suggests a direct commission by Lazare Duvaux from a fondeur-ciseleur. However as, at his death three years later, Duvaux was a client of the fondeur-ciseleurs Leroy, Paffe, Gallien, Buron, Vassoult, Dughe and Osmont, a specific attribution is not possible
The overall design of these cignes may well have been inspired by Meissen porcelain prototypes, as J.J. Kändler and P. Reinicke executed a closely related pair of swans in November 1747 (see: R. Rückert, Meissener Porzellan 1710-1810, Munich, 1966, nos. 1117-1118)
une grille de cheminée pour les bains composée d'un cygne dans des roseaux en bronze doré d'or moulu, modèle fait exprès avec les poupées 550 1., le port à l'hôtel
They were supplied for the bains of her Parisian hôtel, the hôtel d'Evreux (now the Elysée Palace), which Madame de Pompadour had acquired in December 1753. According to the duc de Luynes, extensive refurbishment followed. La Marquise de Pompadour
a fait changer le petit appartement de M. Le Comte d'Evreux et l'a fait augmenter d'une antichambre, d'une salle à manger, d'un cabinet de toilette et de plusieurs garderobes
The chambre des Bains was made octagonal and the doors designed to incorporate mirrored panels, with the feux a cygnes placed in the fireplace opposite the alcove
A pair of chenets of the same model the only other example known, cast with further reeds, formerly in the Blumenthal collection and now in a French private collection, correspond extremely closely with Lazare Duvaux's description in his Journal. They were sold after the death of la marquise, as they are not recorded in the collection her brother and heir, the marquis de Marigny
Another pair of feux à cygnes is mentioned forty years later in the inventory of the possessions of Madame Lorimier de Chamilly, wife of the premier valet de chambre of Louis XVI:-
un feu orné de cuivre doré d'or moulu représentant deux cignes 900 l.
The use of the phrase modèle fait exprès suggests a direct commission by Lazare Duvaux from a fondeur-ciseleur. However as, at his death three years later, Duvaux was a client of the fondeur-ciseleurs Leroy, Paffe, Gallien, Buron, Vassoult, Dughe and Osmont, a specific attribution is not possible
The overall design of these cignes may well have been inspired by Meissen porcelain prototypes, as J.J. Kändler and P. Reinicke executed a closely related pair of swans in November 1747 (see: R. Rückert, Meissener Porzellan 1710-1810, Munich, 1966, nos. 1117-1118)