André-Charles Boulle, ébéniste, ciseleur, doreur et sculpteur du roi, maître before 1666

THE COFFRES OR CASSETTES OF ANDRE-CHARLES BOULLE

On his return from Flanders in August 1671, the duc de Créqui presented Louis XIV with two
petits cabinets d'écaille de tortue en forme de sépulcre avec quelques ornemes de filigrame d'argent'
This is the first recorded instance of tortoiseshell-inlaid furniture entering into Louis XIV's possession

The popularity of such coffrets de toilette' is confirmed by the longevity of their production by André-Charles Boulle and his sons over a period of more than forty years. As early as 1684, Boulle delivered a coffret for the Grand Dauphin's appartements at the château de Versailles, probably one of the two coffers now conserved in the J. Paul Getty Museum, California (82DA 109 1-2)

In the déclaration somptuaire of 7 April 1700, 'deux petits coffres avec leurs pieds' are recorded in Boulle's atelier, while in the acte de délaissement of 1715, a further 'douze pieds de coffres ayant des guesnes ou de cabinets en bois blanc de sapin
600 L' are mentioned

In the fire of 1720, 'douze coffres, avec leurs pieds du differentes grandeurs et formes' were destroyed, while as late as 1732, under item 53, is listed:-

Une boeste contenant les modèles des ornemens de coffres de nuit et de toilette pesant ensemble quarante-quatre livres, prisés à raison de vingt-quatre sols la Livre... LII I.XVIs

Referred to as 'coffre de toilette' in Mariette's folio Nouveaux Deisseins de Meubles et Ouvrages de Bronze et Marqueterie Inventés et gravés par André Charles Boulle of 1707, this form was also described as a coffre de nuit, used to store night garments or perhaps a watch, perruque or tabatière. Such coffers are, however, equally recorded in eighteenth century cabinets where they were used to secure papers, such as the inventory of Jean Philippeaux's possessions in 1711, described as:-
une petite cassette sur son pied, le tout de marquetterie faite par Boulle avec ornements de cuivre prisé 400 1

Further 18th Century references to coffres include that in the effects of Pierre Gruyn in 1722 and the 1736 inventory of the celebrated dealer Julliot, the notary describing

no. 174 une cassette de Boulle avec sa table aussi de Boulle garnie de bronze doré d'or moulu 312 livres'

while the salerooms record a single coffer from the collection of Angrand de Fontpertuis (4 March 1748, no. 370), another from the collection of Baron Crozat de Thiers (26 February 1772, no. 1111) and another in the Bonnemet sale (4 December 1771, no. 150). Several further references from the Julienne, Lauraguais, Lambert, Dubois and Ségur-de-Clesle sales are cited in A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes, Français de Louis XIV à la Révolution, Paris, 1989, p. 86

Although the effects of Etienne Moulle, listed by the notary in 1702, describes:-
two caskets with their Boulle marquetry stands embellished with gilt-bronze mounts 500 livres,

it was principally only in the second half of the 18th Century that coffers start to appear in pairs, a fact that was quickly capitalised upon by the marchands, who matched together closely related examples, preferably in contrasting prémière and contre-partie, such as those sold by the marchands Lerouge (11 January 1799, no. 25) and Dubois (18 December 1789, no. 150), as well as the pair in the Haudry sale of 1794 (nos. 249 and 250)

Of the extant closely related coffres de toilette, Pradère (op.cit., p. 104) lists a pair and a single example in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, Boughton House, Northamptonshire; another, reputedly given by Louis XV to the 9th Lord Cathcart circa 1748-9, was sold anonymously at Christie's New York, 18 May 1989, lot 94; another, with C couronné mounts, was in the Prince Belosselski-Belozerski collection; another is in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle; a further pair are in the Wallace Collection; another was formerly in the de Vogüe Collection; a pair was formerly in the Helena Rubinstein Collection; another was sold anonymously at Christie's London, 20 June 1985, lot 60; and a further pair of coffers, believed to have been purchased from the duc de Richelieu's collection in 1788, were sold from the Ashburnham Collection, Sotheby's London, 26 June 1953, lot 114

A further related coffer on an English stand is in the collection of the Dukes of Devonshire in the Library at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire

THE SEILLIERE COLLECTION

Raised to the peerage in 1814, the brothers François-Alexandre and Nicolas Seillière accumulated arguably the greatest fortune in France during the first half of the 19th Century, prior to the rise of the Rothschilds

Fournisseurs during the Napoleonic regime, the Seillière brothers were appointed contractors for the Expeditionary Corps in Algeria in 1830 and that same year they acquired, with the Schneider family, the Le Creusot business. As a result of their endeavours, the fortune of the two brothers was estimated to be 26 million francs by 1850

The son of Baron Francois-Alexandre, Florentin-Achille (1813-73) married his first cousin Zoé, the daughter of Baron Nicolas, in 1838. Gazzetted as Baron Achille Seillière, he was a leading industrialist, becoming one of the largest shareholders in the Banque de France, and possessing both the coal mines of Montchanin and a sizeable part of the ironworks of Bazeilles

Baron Francois-Alexandre acquired the château de Mello in 1819, and the inventory of the furniture acquired with the château, which does not list these coffres, amounted to 24000 francs. On his father's death in 1850, Baron Achille inherited the château de Mello, by which time the value of the mobilier d'art had risen to the enormous sum of 180,000 francs, only to increase marginally to 200,000 francs on the death of Baron Achille's wife in 1866. The remarkable collection at the château de Mello was, therefore, predominatly assembled by Baron François-Alexandre between 1819 and 1850

On the death of Baron Achille in 1873, his daughter, the Princesse de Sagan, inherited the Parisian hôtel and its collection. The furnishings at the château de Mello were divided between his two sons in 1884, and one part was sold in 1890. However, the majority of the lots were retained by the family, owing to the purchases of the duchesse de Sagan and one of the two brothers

Although these coffers are extremely close in both decoration and proportion, there are numerous minor differences that prevent their being originally commissioned as a pair. It seems most probable that they were, therefore, acquired either separately or as an already 'married' pair between 1819 and 1850. Certainly a number of possible options appeared on the market at that time, and these included two coffers in the sale of the marchand La Fontaine, 10 December 1822, no. 114; two others offered to the garde-meuble de la couronne in 1825 by the marquise de Lismore, an offer that was rejected; and another single coffer, also lined with blue silk, from the collection of Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill, Middlesex, sold by George Robin's, 25 April 1842, lot 25

It is interesting to note that the purchaser of the coffres in the 1911 sale, the celebrated dealer Seligmann, exhibited his treasures in the very hôtel in the rue Saint Dominique that baron Seillière had acquired from the estate of the Banker Hope