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THE PROPERTY OF THE MARQUESS OF CHOLMONDELEY, HOUGHTON HALL, NORFOLK (LOTS 84-96)

A PAIR OF LATE LOUIS XV ORMOLU LIONS

THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY

细节

A PAIR OF LATE LOUIS XV ORMOLU LIONS
THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY
Each depicted recumbant, the underside with fixing holes, on a later marbleised
403/4 in. (25 cm.) high; 22 in. (56 cm.) long (2)

来源

Sir Philip Sassoon, Bt., 25 Park Lane, W.1, recorded in the Large Drawing room in the pre-1927 inventory and shown in an undated photograph.
Thence by descent

展览

London, 25 Park Lane, W1, Three French Reigns, 21 February - 5 April 1933, no. 514 (Catalogue, p. 514)

注意事项

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.

拍品专文

These majestic lions were part of Sir Philip Sassoon's superb collection of ormolu objets d'art in the Large Drawing Room at 25 Park Lane. Their chasing is lively and soft and the expression of the lions is very natural, almost gentle, suggesting they were still conceived in the Louis XV period. Those made towards the end of the 18th Century have a more formal character with an ernest expression and harder chasing to the pelt.
The Sphinx-like posture and regal appearance relates them to the impressive pair of bronze lions cast by Jean-Guillaume Moitte (1746-1810) for the entry portal to the Colonne de la Grande Armé at Boulogne-sur-Mer (G. Gramaccini, Jean Guillaume Moitte, Berlin, 1993, vol. II, pp. 317-318, ills. 350-351).

Sir Philip's exquisite taste for works of art came from a deep understanding and knowledge of the French decorative arts of the 18th Century. He may indeed have known the pair of closely related lion chenets in the collection of Richard Penard y Fernandez in Paris. Pierre Verlet identified these chenets as those supplied by Hauré for the Salon des Jeux de la Reine at Versailles in 1786. and published their full history in 1949, just after Penard had bequeathed them to Versailles ('Musée de Versailles. Les chenets du salon de la Paix', Musées de France, 1949, pp. 9-11).