BY JEAN-FRANCOIS DENIERE, FROM A DESIGN BY AIME CHENAVARD AND JEAN-BAPTISTE KLAGMANN, PARIS, CIRCA 1840-1842

This exquisitely-cast garniture is almost certainly part of a grandiose dessert service furnished by celebrated bronzier, Jean-François Denière, for Ferdinand-Philippe, duc d'Orléans between 1840 and the duc's death in 1842. The original service, totaling 10,400 francs for Klagmann and Chenavard's designs and over 100,000 francs for Denière's labor, comprised of forty-eight components; including twelve two-tiered dessert stands, twelve oval corbeilles (fruit baskets) and twelve circular compotes. The service was subsequently sold by the duc's widow between 18 and 20 January 1853, under the direction that the service would be offered in groups of three with 'une corbeille ou assiette à deux rangs pour milieu et deux compotiers'. Denière purchased nearly one dozen pieces of the service, which he then exhibited in his stand at the Exposition des Produits de l'Industrie in 1844. An identical garniture from the same service is illustrated in Un âge d'or des arts décoratifs, Paris, 1991, p.332 and is currently held in the permanent collection of the Musée des arts décoratifs in Paris.