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Lot Essay
THE CURRIE COLLECTION
Bertram Currie's eclectic collection embraced everything from Dresden china, English portraits and clocks and Italian old masters, to the French decorative arts of the 18th century. Bought between 1877 and 1890 at such great sales as Hamilton Palace in 1882, and Blenheim Palace in 1886, as the privately printed catalogue of Coombe Warren and Richmond Terrace in 1909 reveal, Currie's taste ranged from Louis XIV and Louis XVI Buhl, to Louis XV ormolu-mounted porcelain and bronzes d'ameublement.
THE DESIGN
Designed in the goût Grec, this encrier was almost certainly supplied by the marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier. Established à la couronne d'or in the rue Saint-Honoré, Poirier specialized in Sèvres porcelain-mounted furniture and objets d'art for the Court. The tripartite form and voluted husk-trailed angles related directly to the celebrated series of plaques d'écritoire-mounted encriers supplied almost exclusively by Poirier between 1761 to 1768, of which the earliest recorded is that in the Wallace Collection (R. Savill, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1988, vol. II, C498, pp. 858 - 860). As Savill noted, between July and December 1764 Poirier bought forty-two plaques d'écritoires costing from 9 to 71 livres each, and again in 1772, he acquired a further twelve plaques with his partner Daguerre. As the only other listing for such plaques is the thirthy-six acquired by an unnamed figure in 1765, one can safely conclude that Poirier was responsible for the genesis of this design. An example in tortoiseshell is at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire (G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, Furniture Clocks and Gilt Bronzes, Fribourg, 1974, vol. 1, cat. 72, p. 367).
Bertram Currie's eclectic collection embraced everything from Dresden china, English portraits and clocks and Italian old masters, to the French decorative arts of the 18th century. Bought between 1877 and 1890 at such great sales as Hamilton Palace in 1882, and Blenheim Palace in 1886, as the privately printed catalogue of Coombe Warren and Richmond Terrace in 1909 reveal, Currie's taste ranged from Louis XIV and Louis XVI Buhl, to Louis XV ormolu-mounted porcelain and bronzes d'ameublement.
THE DESIGN
Designed in the goût Grec, this encrier was almost certainly supplied by the marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier. Established à la couronne d'or in the rue Saint-Honoré, Poirier specialized in Sèvres porcelain-mounted furniture and objets d'art for the Court. The tripartite form and voluted husk-trailed angles related directly to the celebrated series of plaques d'écritoire-mounted encriers supplied almost exclusively by Poirier between 1761 to 1768, of which the earliest recorded is that in the Wallace Collection (R. Savill, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1988, vol. II, C498, pp. 858 - 860). As Savill noted, between July and December 1764 Poirier bought forty-two plaques d'écritoires costing from 9 to 71 livres each, and again in 1772, he acquired a further twelve plaques with his partner Daguerre. As the only other listing for such plaques is the thirthy-six acquired by an unnamed figure in 1765, one can safely conclude that Poirier was responsible for the genesis of this design. An example in tortoiseshell is at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire (G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, Furniture Clocks and Gilt Bronzes, Fribourg, 1974, vol. 1, cat. 72, p. 367).