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拍品專文
The arms are those of Magan with quarterings and with those of Loftus in an escutcheon of pretence
SUPP CAPTION: Silver Tureen from the Penthièvre-Orléans Service, Edmé-Pierre Balzac, Paris, 1757-1759, 15½ in. (40 cm.) long. The cast applied cartouche is attributed to Odiot circa 1821 and bears the arms of Louis-Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, King of the French from 1830 to 1848. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Catherine D. Wentworth, 1948 (48.187.418a-c). Photograph c 1992 The Metropolitan Museum of Art
CAPTION: One of the 18th-century rooms in the house of Georges Hoentschel, Boulevard Flandrin, Paris, circa 1900.
Edmé-Pierre Balzac is best known for contributing major pieces to the celebrated royal French silver service known as the Penthièvre-Orléans Service. The service, begun by royal goldsmith Thomas Germain in the 1720s, acquired fourteen additions by Balzac and ten further pieces, mostly dish covers, by Antoine-Sebastien Durand in the 1750s and 1760s. It was inherited in 1821 by Louis-Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, from his mother, daughter of the Duc de Penthièvre. Louis-Philippe became King of the French in 1830, and the service was known simply as "Service No. 1" in the royal household.
The present tureen is Balzac's most important surviving work outside of the Penthièvre Service. Of the six tureens Balzac made for the service, three are in the Musée du Louvre, a pair is in a private collection, and one is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (illustrated here). All of these tureens, dating between 1757 and 1763, relate to the present example in their bold serpentine contours and highly sculptural feet, handles, and finials. Distinctive ovolo borders appear on all of Balzac's Penthièvre pieces, which include the six tureens, four wine coolers, and four large cruet stands. These ovolo borders appear to be characteristic of Balzac's work, and appear both on the body and the cover of the present tureen. Balzac's silver displays superb castings, such as the figural groups on the Penthièvre tureens and the cauliflower finial on this tureen, beautifully cast from life.
Another feature that relates the present tureen to the Penthièvre Service is the applied cartouche which frames the coats-of-arms. The cartouches on the present tureen appear to be from the same mold as the cartouches on Balzac's Penthièvre tureens and wine coolers. All of these cartouches are attributable to Odiot, who added Louis-Philippe's armorials to the service in 1821. Odiot also used the same cartouches on the new pieces made by the firm for Louis-Philippe in this period; namely, the bases for the earlier Durand dish covers. The cartouche on the present tureen, then, may be confidently attributed to Odiot, circa 1817, the year of the marriage represented by the engraved coat-of-arms. (Two wine coolers and the Louvre's tureen are illustrated in French Master Goldsmiths and Silversmiths from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Century, Connaissance des Arts, 1966, pp. 166-167.)
Edmé-Pierre Balzac (1705-after 1781) became "privileged goldsmith of the Court" in 1739, the same year that he married Elisabeth-Philippine Penel, goddaughter of the Dowager Duchesse d'Orléans. In spite of his receiving spectacular commissions for the Penthièvre Service, Balzac was beset by financial difficulties, typical of Parisian silversmiths in the mid 18th century. Surviving documents show that Balzac was an innovator in technique; in 1755 he earned a certificate from the Academy of Sciences for fashioning silver on a lathe in a special way that eliminated the need for solder. In 1766, he invented a machine to stamp table silver with threaded borders (machine á imprimer les couverts á filets). This invention must have been a success, as in 1771 Balzac filed a lawsuit against a former workman for copying the machine. Aside from his work on the Penthièvre Service, he is known for supplying 112 dishes to the Orloff Service, a vast silver dinner service ordered by Catherine II (the Great), Russian Empress, in 1770. Some of these plates, dated 1770-1771, bear the mark of his son-in-law, Claude-Pierre Deville, as a period of bankruptcy prevented Balzac from using his mark in those years.
The History of the Tureen
The engraved coat-of-arms on the Balzac tureen reflects the marriage of William Henry Magan (1790-1840) of King's County, Ireland, and the heiress Elizabeth Georgina Loftus. According to The Story of Ireland: A History of an Ancient Family and Their Country, by W. M. T. Magan, 1983, "The Magan family reached the peak of its material prosperity in the person of William Henry Magan the Elder of Clonearl, sometimes known as William Henry the Magnificent. At the age of twenty-seven he married, in 1817, a considerable heiress. Together they owned very large tracts of the best grasslands in Ireland, and other valuable properties, including one hundred and sixty-five acres of Dublin . . . . They built and staffed a great house, and filled it with treasures." Clonearl, a neo-classical Georgian country house on the Magan family land near Daingean, Offaly, burned in 1846; however, the Magans kept other houses, including a Dublin townhouse at 77 St. Stephen's Green and the Loftus country house, Killyon Manor.
William Henry Magan died in 1840, leaving the estate to his first son, William Henry "the Younger," who died at 42 years old. The Magan fortune then returned to his mother, Elizabeth Georgina Loftus Magan. She managed the estates until she died in 1880, designating her only surviving child, Augusta Elizabeth Magan (1825-1905), as her heir. Augusta, eccentric and unmarried, mismanaged the estates and left them in shambles by 1905, when she died without an heir. Her will specified that her cash, investments, personal possessions, and household contents were to be sold, with the proceeds going towards the building of hospitals. Accordingly, the entire contents of both the Dublin townhouse and Killyon Manor were auctioned in Dublin in 1906, but the houses were in such disarray that "every passage and every room to which access could be gained was packed with parcels and packages of all descriptions; the litter on the main stairs and vestibule was almost knee deep" (op. cit., p. 273). Unable to catalogue or even itemize the property, the auctioneers sold entire rooms as single lots, the furnishings unseen by the purchasers until after the sale. It is possible that this Balzac soup tureen was part of this 1906 auction.
By 1919, the tureen had found its way to Paris, having joined the acclaimed collection of Georges Hoentschel.
Georges Hoentschel (1855-1915) was a connoisseur and architect-decorator who built an important personal art collection and advised other major collectors of his day, most notably Julius Wernher (1850-1912) of London and Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire, and American financier John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913). Hoentschel's own collection was focused on two periods: medieval and 18th century, each displayed in galleries on separate floors of his house on boulevard Flandrin in Paris. In 1906, Pierpont Morgan bought three-quarters of Hoentschel's collection, and numerous objects from this transaction are today in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frick Collection. The Morgan Alcove, a French period room in the Wrightsman Galleries at the Metropolitan, belonged to Hoentschel, who had assembled very fine boiseries as settings for his French furniture and decorative arts (MMA 07.225.147). One of the best medieval pieces that Hoentschel sold to Morgan is the 15th-century bronze sculpture, "L'Ange du Lude," which stood in the rotunda of the Morgan Library until it was acquired by the Frick Collection in 1943. The present tureen remained with Hoentschel's personal collection, which was sold in three separate auctions by his estate over a four-month period in the spring of 1919.
(See Nicole Hoentschel et al., Georges Hoentschel, 1999.)
CAPTION: Title page from the first of the estate auctions of Georges Hoentschel, 1919; the Balzac tureen, lot 63, is illustrated on page 37.
SUPP CAPTION: Silver Tureen from the Penthièvre-Orléans Service, Edmé-Pierre Balzac, Paris, 1757-1759, 15½ in. (40 cm.) long. The cast applied cartouche is attributed to Odiot circa 1821 and bears the arms of Louis-Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, King of the French from 1830 to 1848. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Catherine D. Wentworth, 1948 (48.187.418a-c). Photograph c 1992 The Metropolitan Museum of Art
CAPTION: One of the 18th-century rooms in the house of Georges Hoentschel, Boulevard Flandrin, Paris, circa 1900.
Edmé-Pierre Balzac is best known for contributing major pieces to the celebrated royal French silver service known as the Penthièvre-Orléans Service. The service, begun by royal goldsmith Thomas Germain in the 1720s, acquired fourteen additions by Balzac and ten further pieces, mostly dish covers, by Antoine-Sebastien Durand in the 1750s and 1760s. It was inherited in 1821 by Louis-Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, from his mother, daughter of the Duc de Penthièvre. Louis-Philippe became King of the French in 1830, and the service was known simply as "Service No. 1" in the royal household.
The present tureen is Balzac's most important surviving work outside of the Penthièvre Service. Of the six tureens Balzac made for the service, three are in the Musée du Louvre, a pair is in a private collection, and one is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (illustrated here). All of these tureens, dating between 1757 and 1763, relate to the present example in their bold serpentine contours and highly sculptural feet, handles, and finials. Distinctive ovolo borders appear on all of Balzac's Penthièvre pieces, which include the six tureens, four wine coolers, and four large cruet stands. These ovolo borders appear to be characteristic of Balzac's work, and appear both on the body and the cover of the present tureen. Balzac's silver displays superb castings, such as the figural groups on the Penthièvre tureens and the cauliflower finial on this tureen, beautifully cast from life.
Another feature that relates the present tureen to the Penthièvre Service is the applied cartouche which frames the coats-of-arms. The cartouches on the present tureen appear to be from the same mold as the cartouches on Balzac's Penthièvre tureens and wine coolers. All of these cartouches are attributable to Odiot, who added Louis-Philippe's armorials to the service in 1821. Odiot also used the same cartouches on the new pieces made by the firm for Louis-Philippe in this period; namely, the bases for the earlier Durand dish covers. The cartouche on the present tureen, then, may be confidently attributed to Odiot, circa 1817, the year of the marriage represented by the engraved coat-of-arms. (Two wine coolers and the Louvre's tureen are illustrated in French Master Goldsmiths and Silversmiths from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Century, Connaissance des Arts, 1966, pp. 166-167.)
Edmé-Pierre Balzac (1705-after 1781) became "privileged goldsmith of the Court" in 1739, the same year that he married Elisabeth-Philippine Penel, goddaughter of the Dowager Duchesse d'Orléans. In spite of his receiving spectacular commissions for the Penthièvre Service, Balzac was beset by financial difficulties, typical of Parisian silversmiths in the mid 18th century. Surviving documents show that Balzac was an innovator in technique; in 1755 he earned a certificate from the Academy of Sciences for fashioning silver on a lathe in a special way that eliminated the need for solder. In 1766, he invented a machine to stamp table silver with threaded borders (machine á imprimer les couverts á filets). This invention must have been a success, as in 1771 Balzac filed a lawsuit against a former workman for copying the machine. Aside from his work on the Penthièvre Service, he is known for supplying 112 dishes to the Orloff Service, a vast silver dinner service ordered by Catherine II (the Great), Russian Empress, in 1770. Some of these plates, dated 1770-1771, bear the mark of his son-in-law, Claude-Pierre Deville, as a period of bankruptcy prevented Balzac from using his mark in those years.
The History of the Tureen
The engraved coat-of-arms on the Balzac tureen reflects the marriage of William Henry Magan (1790-1840) of King's County, Ireland, and the heiress Elizabeth Georgina Loftus. According to The Story of Ireland: A History of an Ancient Family and Their Country, by W. M. T. Magan, 1983, "The Magan family reached the peak of its material prosperity in the person of William Henry Magan the Elder of Clonearl, sometimes known as William Henry the Magnificent. At the age of twenty-seven he married, in 1817, a considerable heiress. Together they owned very large tracts of the best grasslands in Ireland, and other valuable properties, including one hundred and sixty-five acres of Dublin . . . . They built and staffed a great house, and filled it with treasures." Clonearl, a neo-classical Georgian country house on the Magan family land near Daingean, Offaly, burned in 1846; however, the Magans kept other houses, including a Dublin townhouse at 77 St. Stephen's Green and the Loftus country house, Killyon Manor.
William Henry Magan died in 1840, leaving the estate to his first son, William Henry "the Younger," who died at 42 years old. The Magan fortune then returned to his mother, Elizabeth Georgina Loftus Magan. She managed the estates until she died in 1880, designating her only surviving child, Augusta Elizabeth Magan (1825-1905), as her heir. Augusta, eccentric and unmarried, mismanaged the estates and left them in shambles by 1905, when she died without an heir. Her will specified that her cash, investments, personal possessions, and household contents were to be sold, with the proceeds going towards the building of hospitals. Accordingly, the entire contents of both the Dublin townhouse and Killyon Manor were auctioned in Dublin in 1906, but the houses were in such disarray that "every passage and every room to which access could be gained was packed with parcels and packages of all descriptions; the litter on the main stairs and vestibule was almost knee deep" (op. cit., p. 273). Unable to catalogue or even itemize the property, the auctioneers sold entire rooms as single lots, the furnishings unseen by the purchasers until after the sale. It is possible that this Balzac soup tureen was part of this 1906 auction.
By 1919, the tureen had found its way to Paris, having joined the acclaimed collection of Georges Hoentschel.
Georges Hoentschel (1855-1915) was a connoisseur and architect-decorator who built an important personal art collection and advised other major collectors of his day, most notably Julius Wernher (1850-1912) of London and Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire, and American financier John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913). Hoentschel's own collection was focused on two periods: medieval and 18th century, each displayed in galleries on separate floors of his house on boulevard Flandrin in Paris. In 1906, Pierpont Morgan bought three-quarters of Hoentschel's collection, and numerous objects from this transaction are today in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frick Collection. The Morgan Alcove, a French period room in the Wrightsman Galleries at the Metropolitan, belonged to Hoentschel, who had assembled very fine boiseries as settings for his French furniture and decorative arts (MMA 07.225.147). One of the best medieval pieces that Hoentschel sold to Morgan is the 15th-century bronze sculpture, "L'Ange du Lude," which stood in the rotunda of the Morgan Library until it was acquired by the Frick Collection in 1943. The present tureen remained with Hoentschel's personal collection, which was sold in three separate auctions by his estate over a four-month period in the spring of 1919.
(See Nicole Hoentschel et al., Georges Hoentschel, 1999.)
CAPTION: Title page from the first of the estate auctions of Georges Hoentschel, 1919; the Balzac tureen, lot 63, is illustrated on page 37.