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拍品專文
André-Charles Boulle, maître in 1666 and Ebéniste, Ciseleur, Doreur et Sculpteur du Roi in 1672.
Each modeled with a dragon perched between asymmetric scrolled branches, watching a lizard above descend from one arm, these superb wall-lights can be confidently attributed to the celebrated artist André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732), and exist as some of his most inventive creations during the late Louis XIV period.
ANDRE-CHARLES BOULLE
Arguably the greatest of all French cabinet-makers, and certainly the most influential, André-Charles Boulle has remained undiminished in pre-eminence since 1672, when Colbert, First Minister to Louis XIV, recommended him to the King as le plus habile de Paris dans son métier. Boulle received his maîtrise in 1666, and in 1672 was appointed Ebéniste, Ciseleur, Doreur et Sculpteur du Roi, allowing him to establish workshops in the Louvre. With the introduction of the guild system in 1715, Boulle found his combined skills as both cabinet-maker and bronzier in direct contravention of the guild regulations. Fortunately, his privileged location within the Louvre and under the patronage of the King restricted their jurisdiction considerably. Boulle's uneclipsed fame rests upon three principal strands: his extraordinary technical virtuosity as a craftsman (recognised by the Livre Commode des Adresses de Paris of 1691, which stated that ‘Boulle fait des ouvrages de marqueterie d'une beauté singulaire’); his astonishing innovation in both technique and design, and his tremendous talent as a sculptor. Indeed, it is the sculptural quality of Boulle's distinctive ormolu furnishings and case-furniture mounts that most succinctly defines his style.
THE DESIGN
These superb wall-lights are directly related to a design by Boulle preserved in his Nouveaux desseins de meubles et ouvrages de bronze et de marqueterie inventés et gravés par André-Charles Boulle, chez Mariette, presumed to have been published around 1715. Contrary to what the title suggests, not all the designs were in fact new at the time of publication. A number of the designs featured reproduced furniture and objects already executed by him and others appear to propose variations to recognized models (R. Baarsen, Paris 1650-1900, Decorative Arts in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2013, p. 87).
While the large majority of Boulle’s models are attributed to the artist because they combine elements featured in this receuil, the present model is probably the only extant which executes its design identically. The model is entitled ‘Bras pour un grand cabinet’, and the overall composition represents a clean break with the other models of wall-lights invented by Boulle, including both those appearing his engravings, and those identified by the caption Bras pour une cheminée qui se trouve dans un appartement dont les planchers sont bas, a pair of which is in the Louvre (Don M. René Grog et Mme Grog-Carven, 1973, OA 10516). On these, the backplate is centered by a console decorated with chûte de piasters on which the dragon perches, creating a central motif from which the branches issue. The design demonstrates the perfect harmony of two potentially contrary elements: the console representing the prevailing Classical aesthetic, and the dragon and asymmetric branches anticipating the birth of the Rocaille style.
THE POSSIBLE PROVENANCE
As with all of Boulle’s objets d’art in bronze, it is difficult to identify these in contemporary inventories, due to the brief descriptions generally afforded to them. It is therefore particularly interesting to note that a pair of appliques of this model can be clearly identified in the collection of the celebrated amateur Ange Lalive de Jully (1725-1779), the leading pioneer of the Neoclassical- or style à la grecque- from the late 1750s. Listed within the section of Ouvrages de Boulle of his 1774 sale is: ‘Une paire de bras composé d’une console d’où sortent deux branches: on y voit un dragon accroupi qui ouvre la gueule contre un crocodile qui descend d’une branche’. Later in the eighteenth century, another sale catalogue also mentions the present model: the sale in 1788, after the death of the chevalier de la Douchetière, Major Officer of the Invalides, records: ‘119- une paire de bras à deux branches, par Boule; ils sont enrichis d’un serpent et d’un dragon, et le bas terminé par un mascaron. Hauteur 21 pouces.’
Additionally a pair of this model, but with three branches, was sold from the Collection of comte d’Armaillé in Paris, 6 June 1890, lot 119.
This superb model is without doubt one of the rarest within the documented oeuvre of Boulle, and very few examples are known today:
- A set of four is now at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (inv. nos. 12789 A and 12789 B), from the collection of the celebrated explorer Alfred Grandidier (1836-1921), illustrated in J.N. Ronfort, ed., André Charles Boulle 1642-1732: A New Style for Europe, Paris, 2009, cat. nos. 34 a and b, p. 273.
- Another set of four was sold at Drouot Montaigne, 22 November 1987, lot 220.
As these examples are both sets of four and were probably created as such, it is quite possible that the present lot is either of pair listed in the 1774 or 1788 sale catalogues, although a further pair was offered Christie's, London, 7 July 2016, lot 312, which could equally have been either of these pairs.
Each modeled with a dragon perched between asymmetric scrolled branches, watching a lizard above descend from one arm, these superb wall-lights can be confidently attributed to the celebrated artist André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732), and exist as some of his most inventive creations during the late Louis XIV period.
ANDRE-CHARLES BOULLE
Arguably the greatest of all French cabinet-makers, and certainly the most influential, André-Charles Boulle has remained undiminished in pre-eminence since 1672, when Colbert, First Minister to Louis XIV, recommended him to the King as le plus habile de Paris dans son métier. Boulle received his maîtrise in 1666, and in 1672 was appointed Ebéniste, Ciseleur, Doreur et Sculpteur du Roi, allowing him to establish workshops in the Louvre. With the introduction of the guild system in 1715, Boulle found his combined skills as both cabinet-maker and bronzier in direct contravention of the guild regulations. Fortunately, his privileged location within the Louvre and under the patronage of the King restricted their jurisdiction considerably. Boulle's uneclipsed fame rests upon three principal strands: his extraordinary technical virtuosity as a craftsman (recognised by the Livre Commode des Adresses de Paris of 1691, which stated that ‘Boulle fait des ouvrages de marqueterie d'une beauté singulaire’); his astonishing innovation in both technique and design, and his tremendous talent as a sculptor. Indeed, it is the sculptural quality of Boulle's distinctive ormolu furnishings and case-furniture mounts that most succinctly defines his style.
THE DESIGN
These superb wall-lights are directly related to a design by Boulle preserved in his Nouveaux desseins de meubles et ouvrages de bronze et de marqueterie inventés et gravés par André-Charles Boulle, chez Mariette, presumed to have been published around 1715. Contrary to what the title suggests, not all the designs were in fact new at the time of publication. A number of the designs featured reproduced furniture and objects already executed by him and others appear to propose variations to recognized models (R. Baarsen, Paris 1650-1900, Decorative Arts in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2013, p. 87).
While the large majority of Boulle’s models are attributed to the artist because they combine elements featured in this receuil, the present model is probably the only extant which executes its design identically. The model is entitled ‘Bras pour un grand cabinet’, and the overall composition represents a clean break with the other models of wall-lights invented by Boulle, including both those appearing his engravings, and those identified by the caption Bras pour une cheminée qui se trouve dans un appartement dont les planchers sont bas, a pair of which is in the Louvre (Don M. René Grog et Mme Grog-Carven, 1973, OA 10516). On these, the backplate is centered by a console decorated with chûte de piasters on which the dragon perches, creating a central motif from which the branches issue. The design demonstrates the perfect harmony of two potentially contrary elements: the console representing the prevailing Classical aesthetic, and the dragon and asymmetric branches anticipating the birth of the Rocaille style.
THE POSSIBLE PROVENANCE
As with all of Boulle’s objets d’art in bronze, it is difficult to identify these in contemporary inventories, due to the brief descriptions generally afforded to them. It is therefore particularly interesting to note that a pair of appliques of this model can be clearly identified in the collection of the celebrated amateur Ange Lalive de Jully (1725-1779), the leading pioneer of the Neoclassical- or style à la grecque- from the late 1750s. Listed within the section of Ouvrages de Boulle of his 1774 sale is: ‘Une paire de bras composé d’une console d’où sortent deux branches: on y voit un dragon accroupi qui ouvre la gueule contre un crocodile qui descend d’une branche’. Later in the eighteenth century, another sale catalogue also mentions the present model: the sale in 1788, after the death of the chevalier de la Douchetière, Major Officer of the Invalides, records: ‘119- une paire de bras à deux branches, par Boule; ils sont enrichis d’un serpent et d’un dragon, et le bas terminé par un mascaron. Hauteur 21 pouces.’
Additionally a pair of this model, but with three branches, was sold from the Collection of comte d’Armaillé in Paris, 6 June 1890, lot 119.
This superb model is without doubt one of the rarest within the documented oeuvre of Boulle, and very few examples are known today:
- A set of four is now at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (inv. nos. 12789 A and 12789 B), from the collection of the celebrated explorer Alfred Grandidier (1836-1921), illustrated in J.N. Ronfort, ed., André Charles Boulle 1642-1732: A New Style for Europe, Paris, 2009, cat. nos. 34 a and b, p. 273.
- Another set of four was sold at Drouot Montaigne, 22 November 1987, lot 220.
As these examples are both sets of four and were probably created as such, it is quite possible that the present lot is either of pair listed in the 1774 or 1788 sale catalogues, although a further pair was offered Christie's, London, 7 July 2016, lot 312, which could equally have been either of these pairs.