A PAIR OF LOUIS XVI ORMOLU-MOUNTED PEWTER AND BRASS-INLAID EBONY AND BLUE-STAINED HORN BOULLE MARQUETRY PEDESTALS
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A PAIR OF LOUIS XVI ORMOLU-MOUNTED PEWTER AND BRASS-INLAID EBONY AND BLUE-STAINED HORN BOULLE MARQUETRY PEDESTALS

CIRCA 1775, POSSIBLY RETAILED BY THE MARCHAND JULLIOT, RESTORED AND SOME MOUNTS REPLACED CIRCA 1815

細節
A PAIR OF LOUIS XVI ORMOLU-MOUNTED PEWTER AND BRASS-INLAID EBONY AND BLUE-STAINED HORN BOULLE MARQUETRY PEDESTALS
CIRCA 1775, POSSIBLY RETAILED BY THE MARCHAND JULLIOT, RESTORED AND SOME MOUNTS REPLACED CIRCA 1815
Each with rectangular ebony top with bead-and-reel border and convex moulded rim decorated with leaf-tip and trailing husks and mounted to the angles with espagnolette masks, above a moulded frieze mounted with sunflower and acanthus above an entwined ribbon-band and gadrooned rim, the volute-shaped tapering body decorated to the front with a scrolling foliate decorated lambrequin with simulated tasseled edge above a tapering panel decorated with stylised acanthus scrolls and mounted with a leaf-tip border, the sides headed by acanthus issued from a channelled scroll above a tapering panel similarly inlaid and with leaf-tip border, on a stepped plinth with gadrooned edge and arched block feet, the reserves mounted with floral paterae, each numbered in chalk '4147', the circa 1815 mounts including the sunflowers of the frieze and the gadrooned base mount, the tops circa 1815
52¾ in. (134 cm.) high; 20½ in. (52 cm.) wide; 15½ in. (39.5 cm.) deep (2)
來源
Acquired from Vala, 27 June 1921.
注意事項
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

拍品專文

These impressive pedestals closely follow a design by André-Charles Boulle, engraved and published after 1707 by Mariette on the title page of his Nouveaux Deisseins de Meubles et Ouvrages de Bronze et de Marquetrie Inventés et gravés par André-Charles Boulle. These pedestals were enormously popular throughout the 18th century, and particularly in the second half with the increasing taste for sculpture collecting and Picture Galleries; used as architectural punctuation these pedestals were made at a height ideal for the appreciation of three-dimensional works of art.

In the acte de délaissement of 1715, whereby Boulle made over his workshop to his sons, are listed :
'Une contrepartie imparfaite du serre-papier accompagné de deux pieds d'estaux de M. Bourvalais, valant 500l
Neuf pieds d'estaux contreparties placqués mais imparfaits quant aux bronzes 150l
Plusiers escabellons oòu guesnes à porter des bronzes comme ceux de M. de Montargis 220l ou autres'


In the inventory taken following Boulle's death in 1732, further mention is made of this model:-
'no. 30 Une boeste de modèles de franges et houppes des pieds d'estaux de cabinet de M. Bourvalais pesant treize livres, prisés à raison de vingt sols la livre XIII (131)' (J.-P. Samoyault, André-Charles Boulle et sa Famille, Geneva, 1979, pp. 68-69 and 139). This would therefore suggest that the model not only enjoyed enduring popularity throughout Boulle's lifetime, but that it was originally commissioned by Paul Poisson de Bourvalais (d. 6 February 1719).

A watercolour drawing of a pedestal of this model in the Palazzo Rosso, Genoa, probably executed for the sale of the Lalive de Jully Collection in 1770, is illustrated in Peter Fuhring, 'Designs for and after Boulle Furniture', Burlington Magazine, June 1992, p. 355.

For a comprehensive discussion of this model in 18th century sales and and 19th century collections, please see lot 23.