.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Claude-Charles Saunier, maître in 1752.
This elegant pair of consoles dessertes, a form developed in the Louis XVI period for the display of porcelain in a salle à manger, demonstrates the highly refined and distinct aesthetic for which Claude-Charles Saunier (1735-1807) is still renowned. Descending from a family of ébénistes, Saunier took over his father's workshop in 1765. He had a long relationship with the Parisian marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre, and many of Saunier's best pieces were supplied to Daguerre's clients.
Dominique Daguerre (d. 1796) was the foremost Parisian marchand-mercier of the last decades of the Ancien Régime. He originally worked with the famous marchand Simon-Philippe Poirier (c. 1720-1785), and in 1777 Daguerre took over the business. He specialized in supplying objets de luxe to the French Court and became an increasing favorite with the visiting English aristocracy. By 1787, he was commissioned to supply the furnishings for George, Prince of Wales, at Carlton House, under the direction of the architect Henry Holland. This in turn led to the establishment of Daguerre's own shop in Piccadilly where the Prince of Wales' wealthy circle of collecting friends, including the Duke of York, the 5th Duke of Bedford and Earl Spencer, could commission furniture from this celebrated marchand.
Interestingly, Daguerre's commissions from Earl Spencer serve to highlight the marchand's relationship with Saunier. A suite of furniture, stamped by Claude-Charles Saunier, including a pair of consoles-dessertes that relate to the offered pair, was supplied by Daguerre under Henry Holland's direction to Earl Spencer for Spencer House, London. Now at Althorp, they were described in Daguerre's invoice of 31 May 1791 as: 'Deux Consoles en Bois d'acajou avec tablettes de marbre entre les Pieds, garni de frisse mouleur et autres Bronzes doré d'ormoulu, les Dessus en marbre Blanc á 960 ...1,920 livres' (F.J.B. Watson, Louis XVI Furniture, London, 1960, no. 145, pp. 134-5, fig. 145).
It is rare to find consoles dessertes still in pairs and particularly those by important makers. Related single examples by or attributed to Saunier include one sold from the collection of the Marquess of Bath, Longleat, at Christie's, London 13-14 June 2002, lot 390, and another from the Alexander Collection sold at Christie's, New York, 30 April 1999, lot 134.
This elegant pair of consoles dessertes, a form developed in the Louis XVI period for the display of porcelain in a salle à manger, demonstrates the highly refined and distinct aesthetic for which Claude-Charles Saunier (1735-1807) is still renowned. Descending from a family of ébénistes, Saunier took over his father's workshop in 1765. He had a long relationship with the Parisian marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre, and many of Saunier's best pieces were supplied to Daguerre's clients.
Dominique Daguerre (d. 1796) was the foremost Parisian marchand-mercier of the last decades of the Ancien Régime. He originally worked with the famous marchand Simon-Philippe Poirier (c. 1720-1785), and in 1777 Daguerre took over the business. He specialized in supplying objets de luxe to the French Court and became an increasing favorite with the visiting English aristocracy. By 1787, he was commissioned to supply the furnishings for George, Prince of Wales, at Carlton House, under the direction of the architect Henry Holland. This in turn led to the establishment of Daguerre's own shop in Piccadilly where the Prince of Wales' wealthy circle of collecting friends, including the Duke of York, the 5th Duke of Bedford and Earl Spencer, could commission furniture from this celebrated marchand.
Interestingly, Daguerre's commissions from Earl Spencer serve to highlight the marchand's relationship with Saunier. A suite of furniture, stamped by Claude-Charles Saunier, including a pair of consoles-dessertes that relate to the offered pair, was supplied by Daguerre under Henry Holland's direction to Earl Spencer for Spencer House, London. Now at Althorp, they were described in Daguerre's invoice of 31 May 1791 as: 'Deux Consoles en Bois d'acajou avec tablettes de marbre entre les Pieds, garni de frisse mouleur et autres Bronzes doré d'ormoulu, les Dessus en marbre Blanc á 960 ...1,920 livres' (F.J.B. Watson, Louis XVI Furniture, London, 1960, no. 145, pp. 134-5, fig. 145).
It is rare to find consoles dessertes still in pairs and particularly those by important makers. Related single examples by or attributed to Saunier include one sold from the collection of the Marquess of Bath, Longleat, at Christie's, London 13-14 June 2002, lot 390, and another from the Alexander Collection sold at Christie's, New York, 30 April 1999, lot 134.