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Lot Essay
HISTORY OF THIS SERIES
Louis XIV began a tradition of presenting the powerful chancellor or his keeper of seals (garde des sceaux) with a set of Gobelins tapestries in 1679. This tradition lasted through the 18th Century until the last set left the looms in 1777. The chancelier was chief justice for life, first among the crown officers and head of the judicial system. He was the only officer to hold his post even with changes of regents and did not wear mourning. He represented the King, interpreted the will and sealed and dispatched laws, declarations, provisions of office and letters of grace and justice. In ceremonies, he sat to the left of the King. The chancellor was further a minister to the King and sat on almost all of the Royal councils. As a legal magistrate he could preside over the sovereign courts, all tribunals of France and the parliament. He was advised by a body of assessors (maître de requètes) and the conseillers d'Etat.
THE LE TELLIER SET
The first chancelier to receive these tapestries as a gift from the King was Michel III Le Tellier. This first set consisted of nine tapestries and one carpet and cost 9,900 livres. Only few of this set survive today. One example is at the Musée Nissim de Camondo in Paris (N. Gasc and G. Mabille, The Nissim de Camondo Museum, Paris, 1997, p. 94) and only preserves the original central section while the borders were altered in circa 1737 and now bear the arms of chancellor d'Argenson (d. 1721) (N. Gasc and G. Mabille, The Nissim de Camondo Museum, Paris, 1997, p. 94), while another with original borders was sold in Paris on 25 May 1892, lot 8. A further pair is recorded in the collection of comte Blaise de Montesquiou-Fezensac in 1949. It is also interesting to note that Charles-Maurice Le Tellier, archbishop of Reims and brother of Michel III, appears to have possessed similar armorial tapestries (E. Standen, European Post-Medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985, vol. I, pp. 362 and 364). Despite the surviving examples the designer of the first set remains unknown. For a second and similar set made for Pierre Boucherat at Beauvais in 1786 (exceptionally woven at Beauvais) records of the Comptes des Bâtiments indicate that it was François Bonnemer (d. 1689) who designed the central motif while Le Moyne supplied the cartoons for the borders.
MICHEL III LE TELLIER
Michel III Le Tellier, marquis de Barbezieux and seigneur de Chaville, was appointed conseiller to the Grand Conseil in 1624. Mazarin appointed him secrétaire d'Etat à la guerre on 13 April 1643 and conseiller d'Etat and commandeur and grand trésorier of the order of Saint-Esprit in 1652. He was further named ministre d'Etat upon Mazarin's death in 1666. Le Tellier ceded the latter position as well as that of the secrétaire d'Etat à la guerre upon his appointment as chancelier and garde des sceaux of France on 28 October 1677. One of his last acts was to sign the Edict of Nantes shortly before his death on 30 October 1685.
Louis XIV began a tradition of presenting the powerful chancellor or his keeper of seals (garde des sceaux) with a set of Gobelins tapestries in 1679. This tradition lasted through the 18th Century until the last set left the looms in 1777. The chancelier was chief justice for life, first among the crown officers and head of the judicial system. He was the only officer to hold his post even with changes of regents and did not wear mourning. He represented the King, interpreted the will and sealed and dispatched laws, declarations, provisions of office and letters of grace and justice. In ceremonies, he sat to the left of the King. The chancellor was further a minister to the King and sat on almost all of the Royal councils. As a legal magistrate he could preside over the sovereign courts, all tribunals of France and the parliament. He was advised by a body of assessors (maître de requètes) and the conseillers d'Etat.
THE LE TELLIER SET
The first chancelier to receive these tapestries as a gift from the King was Michel III Le Tellier. This first set consisted of nine tapestries and one carpet and cost 9,900 livres. Only few of this set survive today. One example is at the Musée Nissim de Camondo in Paris (N. Gasc and G. Mabille, The Nissim de Camondo Museum, Paris, 1997, p. 94) and only preserves the original central section while the borders were altered in circa 1737 and now bear the arms of chancellor d'Argenson (d. 1721) (N. Gasc and G. Mabille, The Nissim de Camondo Museum, Paris, 1997, p. 94), while another with original borders was sold in Paris on 25 May 1892, lot 8. A further pair is recorded in the collection of comte Blaise de Montesquiou-Fezensac in 1949. It is also interesting to note that Charles-Maurice Le Tellier, archbishop of Reims and brother of Michel III, appears to have possessed similar armorial tapestries (E. Standen, European Post-Medieval Tapestries and Related Hangings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985, vol. I, pp. 362 and 364). Despite the surviving examples the designer of the first set remains unknown. For a second and similar set made for Pierre Boucherat at Beauvais in 1786 (exceptionally woven at Beauvais) records of the Comptes des Bâtiments indicate that it was François Bonnemer (d. 1689) who designed the central motif while Le Moyne supplied the cartoons for the borders.
MICHEL III LE TELLIER
Michel III Le Tellier, marquis de Barbezieux and seigneur de Chaville, was appointed conseiller to the Grand Conseil in 1624. Mazarin appointed him secrétaire d'Etat à la guerre on 13 April 1643 and conseiller d'Etat and commandeur and grand trésorier of the order of Saint-Esprit in 1652. He was further named ministre d'Etat upon Mazarin's death in 1666. Le Tellier ceded the latter position as well as that of the secrétaire d'Etat à la guerre upon his appointment as chancelier and garde des sceaux of France on 28 October 1677. One of his last acts was to sign the Edict of Nantes shortly before his death on 30 October 1685.