.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This princely 'bureau à cylindre' is richly sculpted in golden ormolu in picturesque fashion to evoke lyric poetry's triumph: the Golden Age, ruled by Chronos, is recalled by a double-faced clock incorporated in its 'china-rail' of vase-balustered pillars; while candelabra issue from the Roman acanthus wrapping its cartonnier's truss-scrolled pilasters; crouched figures personifying Venus and Mars serve as caryatids for the candelabra, and recall Cupid's triumph and the history of Venus, goddess of Love and Mars, god of War, as recounted in Ovid's, Metamorphoses or Loves of the Gods; a triumphal bas-relief trophy, evoking Love and Peace, labels the 'roll-top' secretaire 'fall', and is framed in a 'tablet' of flowered and wave-scrolled reeds. It comprises Jupiter's sacred oak and Apollo's Mount Parnassus laurels accompanying the helmet of Mars, laid aside amongst Cupid's weapons and the Roman 'fasces' symbolising good government. The reverse trophy likewise comprises the helmet of Mars and weapons of Cupid, together with hymen's torch. The Cupid-bowed and columnar-cornered table-top is supported and guarded by Egyptian sphinx monopodiae incorporated in truss-scrolled pillars; while its central recessed tablet displays a laurel trophy celebrating the sun-deity Apollo's role as god of poetry and leader of the Mount Parnassus Muses of Artistic inspiration.
The form of this magnificent bureau à cylindre derives from the celebrated bureau du roi, designed by Jean-François Oeben (maître 1761) and Jean-Henri Riesener (maître 1768), supplied in 1769 for the cabinet intérieur of Louis XV at Versailles, and first copied in the 1850s, while in Empress Eugénie's possession. Here, the 'Venus' figure derives from that of Jupiter's attendant nymph Amalthée, as sculpted by Pierre Julien (d. 1804) and displayed in the Louvre from 1829; while the opposing 'Mars in Love' figure derives from the celebrated Ludovisi antiquity with supporting Cupid. A copy of the latter had been displayed at the Louvre until its presentation in 1752 to Frederick the Great by Louis XV (see F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique, Yale, 1982, no. 58, pp. 260-1); the sphinx monopodiae derive from those on marble-topped Roman sarcophagus 'commode-tables', which were designed by André-Charles Boulle in the early 18th century for Louis XIV and widely copied in the 19th century (see T. Dell, The Frick Collection, 1992, vol. V, pp. 233-246).
The quality of cabinetry and finely-cast sumptuous ormolu mounts suggest the German-born ébéniste, Joseph-Emmanuel Zwiener, as a possible maker for this desk (see lot 110 for a note on this maker). Another example, also unsigned and identical but for slightly differing cylinder and back trophies, sold Sotheby's, New York, Property from the Joseph M. Meraux Collection, 17 September 1993, lot 197 ($195,000).
The form of this magnificent bureau à cylindre derives from the celebrated bureau du roi, designed by Jean-François Oeben (maître 1761) and Jean-Henri Riesener (maître 1768), supplied in 1769 for the cabinet intérieur of Louis XV at Versailles, and first copied in the 1850s, while in Empress Eugénie's possession. Here, the 'Venus' figure derives from that of Jupiter's attendant nymph Amalthée, as sculpted by Pierre Julien (d. 1804) and displayed in the Louvre from 1829; while the opposing 'Mars in Love' figure derives from the celebrated Ludovisi antiquity with supporting Cupid. A copy of the latter had been displayed at the Louvre until its presentation in 1752 to Frederick the Great by Louis XV (see F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique, Yale, 1982, no. 58, pp. 260-1); the sphinx monopodiae derive from those on marble-topped Roman sarcophagus 'commode-tables', which were designed by André-Charles Boulle in the early 18th century for Louis XIV and widely copied in the 19th century (see T. Dell, The Frick Collection, 1992, vol. V, pp. 233-246).
The quality of cabinetry and finely-cast sumptuous ormolu mounts suggest the German-born ébéniste, Joseph-Emmanuel Zwiener, as a possible maker for this desk (see lot 110 for a note on this maker). Another example, also unsigned and identical but for slightly differing cylinder and back trophies, sold Sotheby's, New York, Property from the Joseph M. Meraux Collection, 17 September 1993, lot 197 ($195,000).