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Lot Essay
With their very fine carving, these athénienne-pedestals are striking examples of the revival of interest in classical antiquity that swept Paris in the 1760s and 1770s. Their design closely follows an engraving by the Strasbourg-born banker and art-lover, Jean-Henri Eberts, for a completely new and functional form of furniture derived from Greco-Roman braziers. While the engraving is undated, it appeared in an advertisement in L'Avantcoueur of September 27, 1773 (S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classism in France, London, 1974, p. 403, pl. 484). Eberts owned a painting by Joseph-Marie Vien (1716-1809) which depicts a similar tripod perfume burner. This painting acquired the title La Vertueuse Athénienne when it was engraved in 1765 (illustrated), and was presumably the inspiration for the name that Eberts gave to this new form (ibid, pp. 138, 385).
Eberts described the athénienne in the accompanying caption as a ‘Nouveau Meuble/Servant/de console/de Casolette/de Rechand/de Pot de Fleurs/de Terrasse/de Reservoir’, combining the functions of washstand, perfume-burner and jardinière all in one form. In Eberts’s engraving, however, the athénienne is shown as a brule-parfum , whereas the present pair – conceived with flat tops – were most probably designed as pedestals to support a candelabrum or a piece of sculpture.
Athéniennes like the present pair were produced by a number menuisiers and sculpteurs. Signed examples by celebrated makers such as Georges Jacob and by A.-P. Dupain are known. Similarly, between 1773 and 1776, the maître peintre-doreur, Jean-Félix Watin, was probably retailing examples of this form, as his engravings, L'Art du peintre, doreur of 1776 lists them at between 300 and 750 livres, depending on the quality of the gilding and carving.
Mme du Barry was among the earliest buyers of athéniennes, who purchased a pair for Louveciennes between May 13 and June 23, 1774. Another of this form appears in a portrait of the duc de Chartres of circa 1775 by Charles Lepeintre. Another example include a closely related pair of jardinière-atheniennes in the Dodge Collection (illustrated) almost certainly from the same workshop, a pair in the Wrightsman Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a further pair in the Musée Nissim de Camondo, Paris, (illustrated at Musée Nissim de Camondo, Paris, 1983, p. 16, cat. 37), formerly in the collection of Madame Burat. Further examples that have sold at auction include a pair from the collection of René Fribourg, sold Sotheby's, London, 18 October 1963, lot 794, and a pair from the collection of the Marquis de Ganay, sold Galerie George Petit, Paris, 8-10 May 1922, lot 273.
Eberts described the athénienne in the accompanying caption as a ‘Nouveau Meuble/Servant/de console/de Casolette/de Rechand/de Pot de Fleurs/de Terrasse/de Reservoir’, combining the functions of washstand, perfume-burner and jardinière all in one form. In Eberts’s engraving, however, the athénienne is shown as a brule-parfum , whereas the present pair – conceived with flat tops – were most probably designed as pedestals to support a candelabrum or a piece of sculpture.
Athéniennes like the present pair were produced by a number menuisiers and sculpteurs. Signed examples by celebrated makers such as Georges Jacob and by A.-P. Dupain are known. Similarly, between 1773 and 1776, the maître peintre-doreur, Jean-Félix Watin, was probably retailing examples of this form, as his engravings, L'Art du peintre, doreur of 1776 lists them at between 300 and 750 livres, depending on the quality of the gilding and carving.
Mme du Barry was among the earliest buyers of athéniennes, who purchased a pair for Louveciennes between May 13 and June 23, 1774. Another of this form appears in a portrait of the duc de Chartres of circa 1775 by Charles Lepeintre. Another example include a closely related pair of jardinière-atheniennes in the Dodge Collection (illustrated) almost certainly from the same workshop, a pair in the Wrightsman Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a further pair in the Musée Nissim de Camondo, Paris, (illustrated at Musée Nissim de Camondo, Paris, 1983, p. 16, cat. 37), formerly in the collection of Madame Burat. Further examples that have sold at auction include a pair from the collection of René Fribourg, sold Sotheby's, London, 18 October 1963, lot 794, and a pair from the collection of the Marquis de Ganay, sold Galerie George Petit, Paris, 8-10 May 1922, lot 273.