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Lot Essay
By the end of the 17th Century France had established herself as the centre of artistic creation. Throughout Europe people sought anxiously to keep up with the developments in Paris. The French court style of Louis XV was greatly admired in Holland, particularly in The Hague, where the Stadholder's court and foreign embassies were based and where a large number of Huguenot craftsmen had fled after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Among these immigrant craftsmen were several silversmiths, whose names appear in the guild's eedboek from the beginning of the 18th Century, such as Jaques Tuillier (registered in 1701), Richard Musseau (1702), Jean Rostang (1711), and Jacob Potier (1718). Amongst the most important Dutch silversmiths who produced works in Louis XV style were Albert de Thomese (master 1708-1753) and Engelbart Joosten (1717-1789) from The Hague, and Johannes Schiotling (1730-1799), Wijnand Warneke (c. 1738-1810), Reynier Brandt (1707-1788) and the French refugee brothers Philippe (died 1763) and Louis Metayer (died 1774) from Amsterdam.
The development of the French Louis XV style was followed in The Netherlands with a lapse of time. The earliest Louis XV ornaments can be found in small, but highly fashionable objects, like snuffboxes and walking stick handles, some of which date back as early as the 1730s. Early examples of large silver in Louis XV style are a set of candlesticks made by Jan Willem Burger in 1745 and a pair of wall sconces by the same master, made in 1753 (Sold at Christie's Amsterdam, 27 May, 1997, lot 450).
Typical for le genre pittoresque, as the Louis XV style is sometimes called, are mobility and the emphasized asymmetry, sometimes combined with a twist, suggesting an upward movement. The traditional distinctions between the border and the subject were abandoned, to suggest organic unity. Characteristic motifs are the C- and S-scrolls and the roccaille. The latter looks like a shell or crest. Naturalistic motifs were occasionally applied freely. No naturalistic motifs are applied in the present set, but we find C-scrolls on the stems of the candlesticks and there is movement in every part of the candlesticks. The lower part seems a billowing sea rather than a solid foot.
Very little is in fact known about Jan Willem Burger, except that he was registered as a silversmith in 1739. In the same year he married Anna Margaretha Nulman. Burger became dean and assay-master of the guild in 1769. His oeuvre however, demonstrates his talent and probably gained him much acclaim in fashionable Hague circles. The present set of candlesticks relates to a pair of candlesticks dated 1758 (Christie's Amsterdam, 25 November 1997, lot 441), and two further pairs in the Haags Gemeentemuseum, dated 1761 and 1767.
Literature:
Catalogus van goud- en zilverwerken, benevens zilveren, loden en bronzen plaquetten, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, 1952, pp.x-xix.
Duyvené de Wit-Klinkhamer T.M. and H.M. Gans, Geschiedenis van het Nederlandse zilver, Amsterdam, 1958, pp.13-56.
Frederiks J.W., Dutch Silver II, 1958, no.512
Lorm, J.R. de, Amsterdams Goud en Zilver, Zwolle, 1999, p.365.
Voet, E., Merken van Haagsche Goud- en Zilversmeden, The Hague 1941.
See illustrations
The development of the French Louis XV style was followed in The Netherlands with a lapse of time. The earliest Louis XV ornaments can be found in small, but highly fashionable objects, like snuffboxes and walking stick handles, some of which date back as early as the 1730s. Early examples of large silver in Louis XV style are a set of candlesticks made by Jan Willem Burger in 1745 and a pair of wall sconces by the same master, made in 1753 (Sold at Christie's Amsterdam, 27 May, 1997, lot 450).
Typical for le genre pittoresque, as the Louis XV style is sometimes called, are mobility and the emphasized asymmetry, sometimes combined with a twist, suggesting an upward movement. The traditional distinctions between the border and the subject were abandoned, to suggest organic unity. Characteristic motifs are the C- and S-scrolls and the roccaille. The latter looks like a shell or crest. Naturalistic motifs were occasionally applied freely. No naturalistic motifs are applied in the present set, but we find C-scrolls on the stems of the candlesticks and there is movement in every part of the candlesticks. The lower part seems a billowing sea rather than a solid foot.
Very little is in fact known about Jan Willem Burger, except that he was registered as a silversmith in 1739. In the same year he married Anna Margaretha Nulman. Burger became dean and assay-master of the guild in 1769. His oeuvre however, demonstrates his talent and probably gained him much acclaim in fashionable Hague circles. The present set of candlesticks relates to a pair of candlesticks dated 1758 (Christie's Amsterdam, 25 November 1997, lot 441), and two further pairs in the Haags Gemeentemuseum, dated 1761 and 1767.
Literature:
Catalogus van goud- en zilverwerken, benevens zilveren, loden en bronzen plaquetten, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, 1952, pp.x-xix.
Duyvené de Wit-Klinkhamer T.M. and H.M. Gans, Geschiedenis van het Nederlandse zilver, Amsterdam, 1958, pp.13-56.
Frederiks J.W., Dutch Silver II, 1958, no.512
Lorm, J.R. de, Amsterdams Goud en Zilver, Zwolle, 1999, p.365.
Voet, E., Merken van Haagsche Goud- en Zilversmeden, The Hague 1941.
See illustrations