.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Adam Weisweiler, maître in 1778.
This rare and elegant gueridon epitomizes the fashionable à l’antique style of the last years of the ancien régime, promoted by the influential marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre. It can perhaps be identified with the table given by Madame du Barry as a New Year’s present in 1792 to her friend the duc de Brissac, described as follows in a bill of 31 December 1791 from Daguerre and his partner Lignereux:
Item une petite table ronde forme de guéridon en racine de bois d'acajou poli sur trois pieds doubles en bronze doré façon de bambous avec entrejambe à tablettes et camé de porcelaine ornant la tablette supérieur prisée trois cent francs, cy....300 (reprinted in P. Lemonnier, Weisweiler, Paris, 1983, p. 162).
An even more precise description of the table, specifically mentioning the plaques of the signs of the zodiac on the top, is found in a 1794 inventory of the contents of the Duc de Brissac's hôtel on the rue de Grenelle by the marchand-mercier Julliot as follows:
…table ronde en bois de racine enriche dans le milieu d'un camée à figures et douze medallions de zodiaque avec pannaux à glaces sur trépied à pieds de biche en bronze à double balustre.
DAGUERRE AND THE TASTE FOR WEDGWOOD
It is probable that Daguerre was responsible for the design and marketing for this model of table, which continued the tradition of furniture mounted with Sèvres porcelain plaques as pioneered by Simon-Philippe Poirier in the 1760's, and also reflects the taste for inlaid tablets and medallions influenced by Robert Adam’s ‘antique’ or ‘Etruscan’ style. The dealer Granchez of 'Au Petit Dunkerque' introduced Wedgwood and Bentley's cameo tablets to France, and from 1787 Daguerre was Wedgwood's representative in Paris. It was in the same year that Sir William Eden, the British minister plenipotentiary in Paris, was to inform Wedgwood that his 'Figures En Relief are far beyond anything that has been attempted anywhere'.
The simulated bamboo legs coupled with the triangular form of the stretcher are derived from Weisweiler's model for a guéridon à double colonnettes, a preparatory drawing for which is in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (illustrated here). The drawing is annotated 'les bronzes argentés S. Kawrovsky'. Comte Skavronsky was the Russian ambassador to Naples (P. Lemonnier, op.cit., pp. 97, 90.) Also illustrated here is a drawing for a table of differing design, but whose top clearly incorporates a group of small medallions, almost certainly of the signs of the zodiac as on the Desmarais gueridon. Other known examples of this model are stamped Weisweiler, indicating that this type of gueridon was probably made exclusively by him and marketed by Daguerre.
Although Weisweiler and Daguerre produced several versions of this model incorporating jasperware medallions, examples incorporating the signs of zodiac are particularly rare, the recorded examples comprising one in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg; one sold Christie’s, London, 1 July 1976, lot 64; one from the collection of Lady Magnus-Allcroft (acquired before 1914), sold Christie’s, London, 10 June 1993, lot 26 (£73,000); and one with French and Company, New York, 1920, which could conceivably be the same as the gueridon offered here or that sold in 1976. A further magnificent secretaire with doors inset with signs of the zodiac was delivered by Daguerre to the Prince de Salm for his hôtel in Paris (now the Palais de la Légion d’Honneur), subsequently sold in these Rooms, 11 December 2014, lot 37 ($905,000).
This rare and elegant gueridon epitomizes the fashionable à l’antique style of the last years of the ancien régime, promoted by the influential marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre. It can perhaps be identified with the table given by Madame du Barry as a New Year’s present in 1792 to her friend the duc de Brissac, described as follows in a bill of 31 December 1791 from Daguerre and his partner Lignereux:
Item une petite table ronde forme de guéridon en racine de bois d'acajou poli sur trois pieds doubles en bronze doré façon de bambous avec entrejambe à tablettes et camé de porcelaine ornant la tablette supérieur prisée trois cent francs, cy....300 (reprinted in P. Lemonnier, Weisweiler, Paris, 1983, p. 162).
An even more precise description of the table, specifically mentioning the plaques of the signs of the zodiac on the top, is found in a 1794 inventory of the contents of the Duc de Brissac's hôtel on the rue de Grenelle by the marchand-mercier Julliot as follows:
…table ronde en bois de racine enriche dans le milieu d'un camée à figures et douze medallions de zodiaque avec pannaux à glaces sur trépied à pieds de biche en bronze à double balustre.
DAGUERRE AND THE TASTE FOR WEDGWOOD
It is probable that Daguerre was responsible for the design and marketing for this model of table, which continued the tradition of furniture mounted with Sèvres porcelain plaques as pioneered by Simon-Philippe Poirier in the 1760's, and also reflects the taste for inlaid tablets and medallions influenced by Robert Adam’s ‘antique’ or ‘Etruscan’ style. The dealer Granchez of 'Au Petit Dunkerque' introduced Wedgwood and Bentley's cameo tablets to France, and from 1787 Daguerre was Wedgwood's representative in Paris. It was in the same year that Sir William Eden, the British minister plenipotentiary in Paris, was to inform Wedgwood that his 'Figures En Relief are far beyond anything that has been attempted anywhere'.
The simulated bamboo legs coupled with the triangular form of the stretcher are derived from Weisweiler's model for a guéridon à double colonnettes, a preparatory drawing for which is in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (illustrated here). The drawing is annotated 'les bronzes argentés S. Kawrovsky'. Comte Skavronsky was the Russian ambassador to Naples (P. Lemonnier, op.cit., pp. 97, 90.) Also illustrated here is a drawing for a table of differing design, but whose top clearly incorporates a group of small medallions, almost certainly of the signs of the zodiac as on the Desmarais gueridon. Other known examples of this model are stamped Weisweiler, indicating that this type of gueridon was probably made exclusively by him and marketed by Daguerre.
Although Weisweiler and Daguerre produced several versions of this model incorporating jasperware medallions, examples incorporating the signs of zodiac are particularly rare, the recorded examples comprising one in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg; one sold Christie’s, London, 1 July 1976, lot 64; one from the collection of Lady Magnus-Allcroft (acquired before 1914), sold Christie’s, London, 10 June 1993, lot 26 (£73,000); and one with French and Company, New York, 1920, which could conceivably be the same as the gueridon offered here or that sold in 1976. A further magnificent secretaire with doors inset with signs of the zodiac was delivered by Daguerre to the Prince de Salm for his hôtel in Paris (now the Palais de la Légion d’Honneur), subsequently sold in these Rooms, 11 December 2014, lot 37 ($905,000).