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Lot Essay
This model of centrepiece is illustrated in an engraving of furniture and works of art shown by the Maison Barbedienne at the 1862 International Exhibition in London. It was among the exhibits which won Barbedienne three medals at the exhibition: for furniture, bronze and orfèvrerie.
The centrepiece itself is described as 'dodécagone, style oriental, en marbre onyx d'Algérie, que décore une ceinture en bronze doré avec émaux cloisonnés par un procédé spécial : elle peut servir à volonté de jardinière ou de pièce de milieu’. The design is credited to M. Sévin, maître dessinateur, ‘un homme rare, pouvant, comme les Florentins, de ses mains propres exécuter tout ce qu'il conçoit, merveilleux d'art, de sentiment, de délicatesse et d'esprit’.
The article extols that the Maison Barbedienne is a remarkable organisation employing four hundred workers and twenty artists. Barbedienne’s factory at rue de Lancry was twenty industries under one roof, including a design studio for the drawing, study and composition of models; a sculpture studio for their execution in plaster, wood, marble etc.; a workshop for the mathematical reduction of the models - a process in which the art and science meet; a workshop for furniture, and for marble, but above all Barbedienne is a foundry of bronze, silver and gold.
This coupe style oriental is exemplary of the finest objets de luxe made during the Second Empire. It combines the precious materials of onyx, enamel and gilt-bronze. Lost since antiquity, the onyx mines of Algeria had only recently been rediscovered. A type of alabaster, the distinctly patterned and translucent stone appealed to the luxuriant tastes of day and was used for works of art, for sculpture by Cordier and, most dramatically, for the balustrades of the new Opéra Garnier. A conflation of influences, this centrepiece is a defining object of art in the industrial age of the Great Exhibitions. The shape of the bowl is Moresque, the enamel of oriental design and the whole is crafted with igneous sophistication by France’s greatest fondeur ornamentalist.
N°. 4 on the above engraving: a blue enamel ‘vase bysantin’ by Barbedienne was bought from the 1862 International Exhibition for the South Kensington Museum (today the V & A). Two further examples of that vase are in in the Musée d’Orsay, Paris (OAO 1296 2), and a further pair sold Christie’s, Paris, 29 April 2014, lot 304 ($121,500).
The centrepiece itself is described as 'dodécagone, style oriental, en marbre onyx d'Algérie, que décore une ceinture en bronze doré avec émaux cloisonnés par un procédé spécial : elle peut servir à volonté de jardinière ou de pièce de milieu’. The design is credited to M. Sévin, maître dessinateur, ‘un homme rare, pouvant, comme les Florentins, de ses mains propres exécuter tout ce qu'il conçoit, merveilleux d'art, de sentiment, de délicatesse et d'esprit’.
The article extols that the Maison Barbedienne is a remarkable organisation employing four hundred workers and twenty artists. Barbedienne’s factory at rue de Lancry was twenty industries under one roof, including a design studio for the drawing, study and composition of models; a sculpture studio for their execution in plaster, wood, marble etc.; a workshop for the mathematical reduction of the models - a process in which the art and science meet; a workshop for furniture, and for marble, but above all Barbedienne is a foundry of bronze, silver and gold.
This coupe style oriental is exemplary of the finest objets de luxe made during the Second Empire. It combines the precious materials of onyx, enamel and gilt-bronze. Lost since antiquity, the onyx mines of Algeria had only recently been rediscovered. A type of alabaster, the distinctly patterned and translucent stone appealed to the luxuriant tastes of day and was used for works of art, for sculpture by Cordier and, most dramatically, for the balustrades of the new Opéra Garnier. A conflation of influences, this centrepiece is a defining object of art in the industrial age of the Great Exhibitions. The shape of the bowl is Moresque, the enamel of oriental design and the whole is crafted with igneous sophistication by France’s greatest fondeur ornamentalist.
N°. 4 on the above engraving: a blue enamel ‘vase bysantin’ by Barbedienne was bought from the 1862 International Exhibition for the South Kensington Museum (today the V & A). Two further examples of that vase are in in the Musée d’Orsay, Paris (OAO 1296 2), and a further pair sold Christie’s, Paris, 29 April 2014, lot 304 ($121,500).