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Lot Essay
Called a table en chiffonnière according to the Encyclopédie of 1765, this was a model of table dont se servent ordinairement les femmes pour le dépôt de leurs ouvrages ou chiffons. Its pendant model, enriched like this with a further Sèvres porcelain plateau to the upper tier, was used like a table en cabaret in a salon or boudoir as a place to stand cups of hot tea, coffee or chocolate.
This exact pattern seems to have been invented in 1771, when the marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier acquired from the Manufacture Royale de Sèvres '3 quarts de cercles 15l...45l'. The table for which those plaques was intended may be identified with that from the comte de Flahout Collection, now in the Metropolitan Museum which, exceptionally, displays plaques with the date letter for 1771 (illustrated in F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, Vol.III, New York, 1970, pp.52-4, no.297).
Between 1772 and 1776, 67 plaques en quart de cercle were sold to Poirier and his successor, Dominique Daguerre. These were used interchangeably for both tables en cabaret and en chiffonière, as well as on secrétaires en cabinet.
In December 1773 Madame du Barry acquired in Paris a table en cabaret for 840 livres, and this was still at the château de Louveciennes in 1793.
It is interesting to note that the majority of Sèvres plaques en quart de cercle mounted on furniture display neither the date letter, nor the mark of the Sèvres manufactory.
Four tables en chiffonière are recorded in 18th century Inventories: The first was given to the Princesse Louise Mathilde de Bourbon Condé before 1778, when she went on to pursue her education at the Abbaye de Panthémont:-' Une autre petit chiffonniére en baril à deux étages dont le dernier orné de trois pans en porcelaine, fond blanc, le fond en bois de rose richement orné et balustrade en bronze doré d'or moulu'. The second belonged to the duchesse de Choiseul-Praslin before 1784, when it is precisely described in an Inventory:- 'Une petite table ronde en bois de rose à panneaux de porcelaine de Sèvres, fond blanc ' fleurs ' trois pieds de biche et tablette. Le tout orné de balustre à jour, moulures, rosettes et autres accessoires en bronze doré'. The third was perhaps given by Madame Adélaide, aunt of Louis XVI, to her friend the duchesse de Narbonne. This table is clearly described during the Revolution:- 'Une petite table ronde à deux tablettes dont les frises en porcelaine garnie de bronze et balustres de cuivre doré d'or moulu, ouverte et vide, la dite table en bois de rose...'. The latter, which had reputedly passed by descent from Mademoiselle de Penthièvre, duchesse d'Orléans, was sold in Paris from the Dubois-Chefdebien Collection, 13-14 February 1942, lot 112.
18th century tables of this pattern, one of which undoubtedly inspired this example, comprise:- one in the Musée du Louvre (OA 10 467), the plaques undated (illustrated in D. Alcouffe et al., Le Mobilier du Musée du Louvre, Dijon, 1993, Vol. I, p.229, no.70); another sold from the Peñard y Fernandez Collection, Palais Galliera, Paris, 7 December 1960, lot 129; another from the collection of Alix Lacarré, was sold at Sotheby's Monaco, 14-15 June 1981, lot 122; another, formerly in the collection of Alphonse de Rothschild, then Edouard de Rothschild, was sold at Sotheby's Monaco, 21 May 1978, lot 15; and the final example was sold from the Riahi Collection, Christie's New York, 2 November 2000, lot 45.
This exact pattern seems to have been invented in 1771, when the marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier acquired from the Manufacture Royale de Sèvres '3 quarts de cercles 15l...45l'. The table for which those plaques was intended may be identified with that from the comte de Flahout Collection, now in the Metropolitan Museum which, exceptionally, displays plaques with the date letter for 1771 (illustrated in F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, Vol.III, New York, 1970, pp.52-4, no.297).
Between 1772 and 1776, 67 plaques en quart de cercle were sold to Poirier and his successor, Dominique Daguerre. These were used interchangeably for both tables en cabaret and en chiffonière, as well as on secrétaires en cabinet.
In December 1773 Madame du Barry acquired in Paris a table en cabaret for 840 livres, and this was still at the château de Louveciennes in 1793.
It is interesting to note that the majority of Sèvres plaques en quart de cercle mounted on furniture display neither the date letter, nor the mark of the Sèvres manufactory.
Four tables en chiffonière are recorded in 18th century Inventories: The first was given to the Princesse Louise Mathilde de Bourbon Condé before 1778, when she went on to pursue her education at the Abbaye de Panthémont:-' Une autre petit chiffonniére en baril à deux étages dont le dernier orné de trois pans en porcelaine, fond blanc, le fond en bois de rose richement orné et balustrade en bronze doré d'or moulu'. The second belonged to the duchesse de Choiseul-Praslin before 1784, when it is precisely described in an Inventory:- 'Une petite table ronde en bois de rose à panneaux de porcelaine de Sèvres, fond blanc ' fleurs ' trois pieds de biche et tablette. Le tout orné de balustre à jour, moulures, rosettes et autres accessoires en bronze doré'. The third was perhaps given by Madame Adélaide, aunt of Louis XVI, to her friend the duchesse de Narbonne. This table is clearly described during the Revolution:- 'Une petite table ronde à deux tablettes dont les frises en porcelaine garnie de bronze et balustres de cuivre doré d'or moulu, ouverte et vide, la dite table en bois de rose...'. The latter, which had reputedly passed by descent from Mademoiselle de Penthièvre, duchesse d'Orléans, was sold in Paris from the Dubois-Chefdebien Collection, 13-14 February 1942, lot 112.
18th century tables of this pattern, one of which undoubtedly inspired this example, comprise:- one in the Musée du Louvre (OA 10 467), the plaques undated (illustrated in D. Alcouffe et al., Le Mobilier du Musée du Louvre, Dijon, 1993, Vol. I, p.229, no.70); another sold from the Peñard y Fernandez Collection, Palais Galliera, Paris, 7 December 1960, lot 129; another from the collection of Alix Lacarré, was sold at Sotheby's Monaco, 14-15 June 1981, lot 122; another, formerly in the collection of Alphonse de Rothschild, then Edouard de Rothschild, was sold at Sotheby's Monaco, 21 May 1978, lot 15; and the final example was sold from the Riahi Collection, Christie's New York, 2 November 2000, lot 45.