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Lot Essay
The secretaire, of marble-figured yew richly mounted in ormolu, is designed in the Louis XVI antique manner of the 1770s, and evokes lyric poetry's triumph with its Homeric tablet in Sèvres jasper-ware depicting the Triumph of Venus and the choice of the shepherd Paris.
Its laurel-wreathed frieze, with a festive tablet of youthful satyrs celebrating the Feast of Venus, is supported by Pompeian pillars of hermed and basket-bearing satyress caryatids; while the poetry deity Apollo appears in the stand's frieze tablet, above a sacred urn displayed on its ribbon-scrolled stretcher-tie. This Pompeian pillar pattern featured on Queen Marie-Antoinette's celebrated lacquer-veneered table, which was designed under the direction of the rue St. Honoré marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre (d.1782) and delivered to Versailles in 1784 ( P.Lemonnier, Weisweiler, Paris, 1983, p.42) . The same ormolu pattern, which may originally have been executed by Gouthière also featured in 1785 on a pair of Sèvres-enriched secretaires at Palais de St.Cloud. ( P.Lemonnier ibid, p.68 ). A closely related secretaire by Adam Weisweiler is illustrated in Pierre Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1989, p.867, number B.
The form of this secretaire, relates in particular to that of a Sèvres-mounted 'secretaire en cabinet', which has similar ormolu enrichments, in the manner of J.F.Forty, apart from the Apollo tablet (P.Lemonnier ibid., p.109; and G.Wilson and C.Hess, Summary Catalogue of European Decorative Arts in The John Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2001, no.50 ).
The 'Judgement of Paris' tablet is discussed E.Bougeois and G.Lechevallier-Chevignard, Les Biscuits de Sevres, Recueille des Modeles de la Manufacture de Sevres au XVIIIe Siecle, Paris, Vol.1, p.41. A late 18th century plaque of this subject was sold in these Rooms, 11 December 2000, lot 408.
The signature on the lock refers to the little-known firm Souchet, established in the rue Moreau-Saint-Antoine from 1850. A Louis XVI style lacquer bureau, after the model by Martin Carlin, with a Souchet lock was sold, Christie's New York, 26 October 2001, The Property of the Late André Meyer, lot 63.
Its laurel-wreathed frieze, with a festive tablet of youthful satyrs celebrating the Feast of Venus, is supported by Pompeian pillars of hermed and basket-bearing satyress caryatids; while the poetry deity Apollo appears in the stand's frieze tablet, above a sacred urn displayed on its ribbon-scrolled stretcher-tie. This Pompeian pillar pattern featured on Queen Marie-Antoinette's celebrated lacquer-veneered table, which was designed under the direction of the rue St. Honoré marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre (d.1782) and delivered to Versailles in 1784 ( P.Lemonnier, Weisweiler, Paris, 1983, p.42) . The same ormolu pattern, which may originally have been executed by Gouthière also featured in 1785 on a pair of Sèvres-enriched secretaires at Palais de St.Cloud. ( P.Lemonnier ibid, p.68 ). A closely related secretaire by Adam Weisweiler is illustrated in Pierre Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1989, p.867, number B.
The form of this secretaire, relates in particular to that of a Sèvres-mounted 'secretaire en cabinet', which has similar ormolu enrichments, in the manner of J.F.Forty, apart from the Apollo tablet (P.Lemonnier ibid., p.109; and G.Wilson and C.Hess, Summary Catalogue of European Decorative Arts in The John Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2001, no.50 ).
The 'Judgement of Paris' tablet is discussed E.Bougeois and G.Lechevallier-Chevignard, Les Biscuits de Sevres, Recueille des Modeles de la Manufacture de Sevres au XVIIIe Siecle, Paris, Vol.1, p.41. A late 18th century plaque of this subject was sold in these Rooms, 11 December 2000, lot 408.
The signature on the lock refers to the little-known firm Souchet, established in the rue Moreau-Saint-Antoine from 1850. A Louis XVI style lacquer bureau, after the model by Martin Carlin, with a Souchet lock was sold, Christie's New York, 26 October 2001, The Property of the Late André Meyer, lot 63.