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Lot Essay
Martin Carlin, maître in 1766.
THE PORCELAIN PLAQUES
The two front plaques are marked with the two interlaced L's and date letter X for the year 1776 and the mark of the painter Denis Levé, active from 1754-1805. The side plaques are also marked with interlaced L's and the date letter V for 1774 and the mark for the painter Charles-Louis Méréaud (1735-1780). The plaques on this commode are comparable in size to plaques on a two-door secrétaire by Carlin at Waddesdon Manor (see G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, vol.1 p. 342 ) which bear Sèvres factory price labels indicating that the plaques on the front cost 96 livres and the smaller side plaques cost 80 livres. If we take these prices as a reference, in the Sèvres archive for the years 1774 and 1776 are found the following entries which likely include the plaques on this commode:
Ventes faites à Daguerre-Poirier
6 derniers mois 1774
4 plaques 80 320 L
Ventes faites aux marchands 6 derniers mois de 1776
Poirier-Daguerre
2 plaques ovales 96 192L
Fewer than ten commodes mounted with Sèvres porcelain plaques were made in the 18th Century. Produced over a relatively short period of time and extremely expensive at the time, such items were generally given as marriage gifts or New Year's Eve presents. Out of fashion in France after the Revolution, these pieces were generally poorly recorded in early 19th Century inventories. Interestingly, although porcelain-mounted furniture remained in fashion in England, it did not become generally fashionable once again until the late 1820's.
The only known archival record for a porcelain-mounted commode with two doors, decorated with green-ground porcelain medallions is the following:
inventaire de Madame de Laborde le 31 juillet 1821, Grand salon de son hôtel rue d'Artois, no. 55- Un meuble en bois d'acajou garni de filets de cuivre et à dessus de marbre rouge. Ce meuble ouvrant sur le devant par deux battants et un tiroir, incrusté en porcelaine fond vert à medaillons blancs représentent des fleurs 900fr. (Private Archive)
It seems reasonable to identify the offered commode with this 1821 reference, as the description appears to match almost perfectly, with teh exception of the marble (which is changed anyway) and a possible misidentification of the wood- and such Sèvres-porcelain mounted commodes are exceptionally rare, let alone of this shape and with green-ground plaques.
JEAN-JOSEPH AND MADAME DE LABORDE
Born Rosalie Claire Joseph de Nettine in 1737, Madame de Laborde was the daughter of the banker to Empress Maria-Theresa of Austria. On the 12th of August 1760, she married Jean-Joseph de Laborde, banker to Louis XVI, successor to Paris de Montmartel and friend of the duc de Choiseul. Her three sisters became, through marriage: Madame Lalive de Jully, wife of the celebrated collector; Madame Micauld d'Harvelay, then de Calonne (keeper of the Trésor Royal); and Madame de Walkiers, wife of the most important banker in Brussels.
Incredibly wealthy, and one of the most powerful men in Europe, Jean-Joseph de Laborde was by all accounts held in very high regard. Devastated by the death of two of his sons during the Lapérouse Campaign, then the loss of his daughter Madame Péruse d'Escars, he retired to his Château at Méréville. He was brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal and guillotined in 1794. His son emigrated and his wife and daughter were imprisoned at La Petite Force. Freed after the execution of Robespierre, Madame de Laborde was forced to sell Méréville.
The Château de Méréville was purchased by the marquis de Laborde in 1784 and was considered in the 18th Century one of the most beautiful residences in France. Restored by the architect Bélanger, the painter Hubert Robert was consulted on the design of the garden. Four large panels painted by Robert for the grand salon now hang in the Art Institute of Chicago. Daguerre also delivered a régulatur de cheminée and four pieces of furniture, including a pair of contre-partie cabinets stamped by Adam Weisweiler, now in the Wallace Collection, London, and illustrated in F.J.B. Watson Wallace Collection Catalogues: Furniture, London, 1956, F.393 and F.394, pp. 207-209 and in P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Furniture, London, 1996, vol. II, pp. 596-597.
THE COMMODE IN THE 19TH CENTURY
It is not known when this commode came into Madame de Laborde's possession and it is not recorded before 1800 in the inventory made after her husband, the marquis de Laborde's death in 1794. In all likelihood, she inherited it upon the death of one of her sisters or her parents. She did, however, consider it a highly important piece in her collection, exhibiting it in the grand salon of her hôtel on the rue d'Artois (now rue Lafitte). The hotel was bequeathed, with its furnishings, to her daughter Nathalie (1774-1835), duchesse de Mouchy through her marriage to Arthur Tristan Charles de Noailles, duc de Mouchy.
Soon after the death of her mother, and herself in ill-health, Nathalie de Mouchy purchased a house in Boulogne on the rue du Rocher. At the time of her death in 1835, nothing was apparently left of the collections of her father, and her mother's hôtel was rented to a furniture dealer named Bourgeois. It is therefore likely that the commode was sold between July 1821, when Madame de Laborde died, and March 1822, when her daughter purchased the house in Boulogne.
The commode was illustrated at the end of the 19th Century by Edouard Garnier, conservator at the Sèvres Museum, who undertook to illustrate all the pieces with porcelain plaques in the collection of Baron Alphonse de Rothschild. Interestingly, upon the death of Madame de Laborde, the parents of Baron Alphonse lived in a neighboring hotel on the rue d'Artois.
MARTIN CARLIN AND THE MARCHAND-MERCIERS
The fashion for mounting porcelain plaques onto exquisite pieces of furniture was brought to the novelty-seeking Parisian connoisseurs by the marchand-merciers around 1760. These items were incrediby rare and sought after, even during the time of their production. They included small tables, bonheur-du-jours, bureau-plats, secrétaires, and most rare of all, commodes. Most of these examples are now in museum collections. The first plaques recorded for use on furniture are a set of five made for a table at Vincennes in 1752.
The celebrated dealer Simon-Philippe Poirier is credited with being the first marchand to combine porcelain plaques with case-furniture, ordered in 1758 directly coordinating production with an ébéniste. His partner and successor Dominque Daguerre was the largest purchaser of Sèvres plaques and took over what was a virtual monopoly on porcelain-mounted furniture, continuing the practice well into the 1790's.
MARTIN CARLIN
Of German origin, Martin Carlin was active as an ébéniste by 1759, at which time he married Marie-Catherine Oeben, sister of the successful ébéniste Jean-François Oeben, for whom he probably worked until the latter's death in 1763. Working independently, Carlin soon began to furnish Poirier with case furniture, and his first recorded piece of porcelain-mounted furniture dates to 1763, a bonheur-du-jour now in the Bowes Museum, Co. Durham. In particular, he seems to have specialized in the production of furniture mounted with both porcelain plaques, and in the early 1780's, with Japanese laquer panels, working from designs provided by Dominique Daguerre, for the foremost collectors of the day, including the French Crown.
Porcelain-mounted commodes by Martin Carlin are spectacularly rare, with only four other known examples, all of which are now in permanent collections. These comprise:
1. Musée du Louvre, gift of Edmond de Rothschild, 1991, stamped by Carlin, delivered by Poirier to Madame du Barry on August 21st 1772 for her appartements at Versailles
2. Musée du Louvre, gift of Edmond de Rothschild, 1991, stamped by Carlin, formerly in the collection of the comte de Provence and probably bought in 1775 from the collection of Madame du Barry
3. The Royal Collection, stamped by Carlin, 1783, acquired by George IV, the Prince of Wales, from Daguerre for Carlton House before 1812.
The mounts on this commode are ones which were used infrequently within the oeuvre of Carlin. The angle mounts are also found on the commode delivered to Madame du Barry in 1772, now in the Louvre. The lion's mask and frieze mounts on the drawer appear on a secretaire stamped Carlin, now in the Palaçio Real, Madrid, having come from the collection of the banker Duruey. The inventory made at the time of Carlin's death in 1785 mentions that he worked with mounts supplied by the bronziers Joachim Provost and André Ravrio.
THE PORCELAIN PLAQUES
The two front plaques are marked with the two interlaced L's and date letter X for the year 1776 and the mark of the painter Denis Levé, active from 1754-1805. The side plaques are also marked with interlaced L's and the date letter V for 1774 and the mark for the painter Charles-Louis Méréaud (1735-1780). The plaques on this commode are comparable in size to plaques on a two-door secrétaire by Carlin at Waddesdon Manor (see G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, vol.1 p. 342 ) which bear Sèvres factory price labels indicating that the plaques on the front cost 96 livres and the smaller side plaques cost 80 livres. If we take these prices as a reference, in the Sèvres archive for the years 1774 and 1776 are found the following entries which likely include the plaques on this commode:
Ventes faites à Daguerre-Poirier
6 derniers mois 1774
4 plaques 80 320 L
Ventes faites aux marchands 6 derniers mois de 1776
Poirier-Daguerre
2 plaques ovales 96 192L
Fewer than ten commodes mounted with Sèvres porcelain plaques were made in the 18th Century. Produced over a relatively short period of time and extremely expensive at the time, such items were generally given as marriage gifts or New Year's Eve presents. Out of fashion in France after the Revolution, these pieces were generally poorly recorded in early 19th Century inventories. Interestingly, although porcelain-mounted furniture remained in fashion in England, it did not become generally fashionable once again until the late 1820's.
The only known archival record for a porcelain-mounted commode with two doors, decorated with green-ground porcelain medallions is the following:
inventaire de Madame de Laborde le 31 juillet 1821, Grand salon de son hôtel rue d'Artois, no. 55- Un meuble en bois d'acajou garni de filets de cuivre et à dessus de marbre rouge. Ce meuble ouvrant sur le devant par deux battants et un tiroir, incrusté en porcelaine fond vert à medaillons blancs représentent des fleurs 900fr. (Private Archive)
It seems reasonable to identify the offered commode with this 1821 reference, as the description appears to match almost perfectly, with teh exception of the marble (which is changed anyway) and a possible misidentification of the wood- and such Sèvres-porcelain mounted commodes are exceptionally rare, let alone of this shape and with green-ground plaques.
JEAN-JOSEPH AND MADAME DE LABORDE
Born Rosalie Claire Joseph de Nettine in 1737, Madame de Laborde was the daughter of the banker to Empress Maria-Theresa of Austria. On the 12th of August 1760, she married Jean-Joseph de Laborde, banker to Louis XVI, successor to Paris de Montmartel and friend of the duc de Choiseul. Her three sisters became, through marriage: Madame Lalive de Jully, wife of the celebrated collector; Madame Micauld d'Harvelay, then de Calonne (keeper of the Trésor Royal); and Madame de Walkiers, wife of the most important banker in Brussels.
Incredibly wealthy, and one of the most powerful men in Europe, Jean-Joseph de Laborde was by all accounts held in very high regard. Devastated by the death of two of his sons during the Lapérouse Campaign, then the loss of his daughter Madame Péruse d'Escars, he retired to his Château at Méréville. He was brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal and guillotined in 1794. His son emigrated and his wife and daughter were imprisoned at La Petite Force. Freed after the execution of Robespierre, Madame de Laborde was forced to sell Méréville.
The Château de Méréville was purchased by the marquis de Laborde in 1784 and was considered in the 18th Century one of the most beautiful residences in France. Restored by the architect Bélanger, the painter Hubert Robert was consulted on the design of the garden. Four large panels painted by Robert for the grand salon now hang in the Art Institute of Chicago. Daguerre also delivered a régulatur de cheminée and four pieces of furniture, including a pair of contre-partie cabinets stamped by Adam Weisweiler, now in the Wallace Collection, London, and illustrated in F.J.B. Watson Wallace Collection Catalogues: Furniture, London, 1956, F.393 and F.394, pp. 207-209 and in P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Furniture, London, 1996, vol. II, pp. 596-597.
THE COMMODE IN THE 19TH CENTURY
It is not known when this commode came into Madame de Laborde's possession and it is not recorded before 1800 in the inventory made after her husband, the marquis de Laborde's death in 1794. In all likelihood, she inherited it upon the death of one of her sisters or her parents. She did, however, consider it a highly important piece in her collection, exhibiting it in the grand salon of her hôtel on the rue d'Artois (now rue Lafitte). The hotel was bequeathed, with its furnishings, to her daughter Nathalie (1774-1835), duchesse de Mouchy through her marriage to Arthur Tristan Charles de Noailles, duc de Mouchy.
Soon after the death of her mother, and herself in ill-health, Nathalie de Mouchy purchased a house in Boulogne on the rue du Rocher. At the time of her death in 1835, nothing was apparently left of the collections of her father, and her mother's hôtel was rented to a furniture dealer named Bourgeois. It is therefore likely that the commode was sold between July 1821, when Madame de Laborde died, and March 1822, when her daughter purchased the house in Boulogne.
The commode was illustrated at the end of the 19th Century by Edouard Garnier, conservator at the Sèvres Museum, who undertook to illustrate all the pieces with porcelain plaques in the collection of Baron Alphonse de Rothschild. Interestingly, upon the death of Madame de Laborde, the parents of Baron Alphonse lived in a neighboring hotel on the rue d'Artois.
MARTIN CARLIN AND THE MARCHAND-MERCIERS
The fashion for mounting porcelain plaques onto exquisite pieces of furniture was brought to the novelty-seeking Parisian connoisseurs by the marchand-merciers around 1760. These items were incrediby rare and sought after, even during the time of their production. They included small tables, bonheur-du-jours, bureau-plats, secrétaires, and most rare of all, commodes. Most of these examples are now in museum collections. The first plaques recorded for use on furniture are a set of five made for a table at Vincennes in 1752.
The celebrated dealer Simon-Philippe Poirier is credited with being the first marchand to combine porcelain plaques with case-furniture, ordered in 1758 directly coordinating production with an ébéniste. His partner and successor Dominque Daguerre was the largest purchaser of Sèvres plaques and took over what was a virtual monopoly on porcelain-mounted furniture, continuing the practice well into the 1790's.
MARTIN CARLIN
Of German origin, Martin Carlin was active as an ébéniste by 1759, at which time he married Marie-Catherine Oeben, sister of the successful ébéniste Jean-François Oeben, for whom he probably worked until the latter's death in 1763. Working independently, Carlin soon began to furnish Poirier with case furniture, and his first recorded piece of porcelain-mounted furniture dates to 1763, a bonheur-du-jour now in the Bowes Museum, Co. Durham. In particular, he seems to have specialized in the production of furniture mounted with both porcelain plaques, and in the early 1780's, with Japanese laquer panels, working from designs provided by Dominique Daguerre, for the foremost collectors of the day, including the French Crown.
Porcelain-mounted commodes by Martin Carlin are spectacularly rare, with only four other known examples, all of which are now in permanent collections. These comprise:
1. Musée du Louvre, gift of Edmond de Rothschild, 1991, stamped by Carlin, delivered by Poirier to Madame du Barry on August 21st 1772 for her appartements at Versailles
2. Musée du Louvre, gift of Edmond de Rothschild, 1991, stamped by Carlin, formerly in the collection of the comte de Provence and probably bought in 1775 from the collection of Madame du Barry
3. The Royal Collection, stamped by Carlin, 1783, acquired by George IV, the Prince of Wales, from Daguerre for Carlton House before 1812.
The mounts on this commode are ones which were used infrequently within the oeuvre of Carlin. The angle mounts are also found on the commode delivered to Madame du Barry in 1772, now in the Louvre. The lion's mask and frieze mounts on the drawer appear on a secretaire stamped Carlin, now in the Palaçio Real, Madrid, having come from the collection of the banker Duruey. The inventory made at the time of Carlin's death in 1785 mentions that he worked with mounts supplied by the bronziers Joachim Provost and André Ravrio.