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Lot Essay
Claude-Charles Saunier, maître in 1752.
This striking commode, decorated with refined ormolu mounts, ingeniously incorporates the central drawers and inner structure from a precious seventeenth-century Japanese lacquer cabinet. It is part of a select and luxurious group of commodes featuring Japanese lacquer, which was the most costly and sought-after type of lacquer among enlightened connoisseurs in the eighteenth century. The ingenious and luxurious use of Chinese and Japanese lacquer to decorate pieces of Parisian furniture was the result of the inventiveness of the luxury taste-makers of Paris, the marchands-merciers, who had a monopoly on importing luxury goods such as lacquer and porcelain from Asia and responded with extraordinary imaginativeness to the passion for chinoiserie among collectors throughout the 1700s.
JAPANESE LACQUER COMMODES
Commodes incorporating Japanese cabinets appear as early as the beginning of the eighteenth century and were continuously held in high regard throughout the 1700s. Lacquer cabinets containing numerous drawers concealed by two doors were produced in Asia in the seventeenth century to satisfy the demands of the Western market. Imported from the East Asia, they were immediately coveted by European customers. During the second half of the seventeenth century such cabinets were often used unaltered and placed on elaborate Western stands. It was not until the reign of Louis XV that the marchands-merciers began dismantling cabinets which, with their doors removed, saw their frames containing the original drawers incorporated into western carcases. These new frames were often ebonized and further embellished with japanning and ormolu mounts. The doors of the original cabinets were often used to decorated the sides of these commodes. The marchand Hébert possessed une petite commode de 3 pieds 4 pouces de long garnie de 10 tiroirs de verny de la Chine 120 livres in his shop as early as 1724. On 16 May 1750, Lazare Duvaux delivered to Madame de Pompadour une commode composée de tiroirs d'ancien lacque garnie de bronze doré d'ormolu avec le marbre d'Antin, 864 livres, which is probably the commode subsequently recorded at Saint Ouen in 1764. Likewise, Darnault commissioned BVRB's talents to execute a similar commode which is now in the Louvre (inv. OA 11 745). Finally, in the 1775 inventory following the death of the wife of the prolific marchand Racinel de la Planche, who specialized in lacquer, there is recorded un corps de commode à 10 tiroirs de lacque noir et or, le corps plaqué en ébéne et cannelures avec cadres et anneaux de bronze doré son dessus de marbre portor 360 livres. All of these examples must have paralleled the form of the commode offered here.
BVRB’s commode in the Louvre illustrates the practice of concealing the fact that the drawers were reused, as was common at the time. As the century progressed, the original Asian framework was highlighted to emphasize the exotic nature of the piece, as evidenced by the present commode. The rise of Neoclassicism and the desire to achieve cleaner lines and simpler forms almost necessitated emphasizing the original structure, partially due to the constraints presented by the original Japanese construction. Because the cabinets imported from Japan and China were usually of the same size, measuring at around 40 inches, or 110 centimeters in width, the commodes produced by Parisan ébènistes tend to be of similar size. The most remarkable commodes, all of comparable dimensions, were produced by some of the best-known cabinet-makers of the second half of the eighteenth century, such as Joseph Baumhauer, René Dubois, Etienne Levasseur, Jean-François Leleu, Mathieu-Guillaume Cramer and, as in this case, Claude-Charles Saunier.
Today, only about twenty such commodes are known but due to their similar sizes and decorations, only three can be matched to their original owners with certainty: a pair by Levasseur owned by Pierre Louis-Paul Randon de Boisset, and the present commode from the duchesse de Mazarin. It is primarily the number of drawers that helps differentiate among existing commodes. Other notable eighteenth-century collectors who owned similar commodes include Madame de Pompadour; Louis-Jean Gaignat, secrétaire du Roi; the marchand mercier Jean Rachinel Delaplanche; as well as Randon de Boisset, receveur général des finances de Lyon, whose abovementioned commodes were eventually sold in the twentieth century from the collection of Jaime Ortiz Patiño, Sotheby's, New York, 20 May 1992, lot 85, now in a private collection.
To discover the original owner of the present lot, it is necessary to first identify commodes fitted with ten drawers. One can find about ten such pieces in archival records belonging to a varied group of collectors, including the duc de la Vrillière, ministre de la maison du Roi; Nicolas-Joseph Bergeret de Grancourt; Jean Lemaistre de La Martinière; Harenc de Presle; and the banker Jean-Joseph de Laborde, whose commode by Leleu was seized during the Revolution. Furthermore, a commode with ten drawers attributed to Saunier was delivered in 1791 to the Earl of Spencer by Daguerre, see (F.J.B. Watson, Le Meuble Louis XVI, Paris, 1963, n. 149).
THE MAZARIN PROVENANCE
The present commode was almost certainly supplied to Louise-Jeanne de Durfort de Duras, duchesse de Mazarin and was recorded in her bedroom at the château de Chilly-Mazarin in 1781. The duchesse died in Paris on 17 March 1781 and her home on the quai Malaquais was immediately sealed as she had amassed large debts. An inventory of her château was carried out 9-18 June 1781. Joseph-Alexandre Lebrun, responsible for assessing the precious objects and furniture that were to be auctioned, estimated the ten-drawer lacquer commode in the bedroom at 240 livres. It was offered at public auction on 10 December 1781 as lot 358: une commode de laque noir, avec des oiseaux de relief en or, composée d'un grand tiroir et de neuf petits, avec entrée de serrure & ornements de cuivre doré, & à dessus de marbre d'Italie. The present commode and the duchesse's other possessions from Chilly were not, however, sold until some years later, due to the objections of the her numerous creditors. When the estate was finally sold, between August 1784 and March 1785, the commode was purchased by a Sieur Chevalier, probably an agent who was bidding on behalf of a client, for 408 livres. The Mazarin commode then entered the collection of the abovementioned Jean-Joseph de Laborde (see L'Estampille, l'Objet d'Art, September 1989, no. 228 pp. 66-75). Although the 1781 lot description of the commode from Mazarin’s bedroom lacks dimensions and is somewhat vague, we can be almost certain that it denotes our lot as it is noted to feature birds executed in high relief gold lacquer: avec des oiseaux de relief en or, a unique feature among the known ten-drawer commodes of this type. Additionally, the description also specifies a marbre d'Italie top, which could refer to the Portor marble on this lot. The duchesse de Mazarin's taste for sumptuous pieces in Japanese lacquer is well documented, including a commode and pair of encoignures supplied by Joseph for her Parisian hôtel (now in the British Royal collection), and the exquisite table comprising lot 89 in this sale. Such a taste for Japanese lacquer was no doubt influenced by the fabled Mazarin lacquer coffer, which had been supplied to her family in the seventeenth century, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (acc. no. 412:1,2-1882).
THE DUCHESSE DE MAZARIN
Louise-Jeanne de Durfort, duchesse de Mazarin et de la Meilleraye (1735-1781) was the daughter of the politician and diplomat Emmanuel-Félicité de Durfort (1715-1789) and Charlotte Antoinette de la Porte-Mazarin (1719-1735). In 1747 she married Louis-Marie, duc d'Aumont (1732-1799). Their daughter, Louise d'Aumont (1759-1826), became a Princess of Monaco upon her marriage in 1777 to Jacques François Honoré IV of the Grimaldi family. The duchesse’s main residences were her Parisian hôtel on the quai Malaquais, demolished in the nineteenth century and currently the site of the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris, and the château de Chilly-Mazarin, southwest of Paris, sold by Louise d’Aumont in 1804. In 1774 the duchesse enlisted the services of François-Joseph Bélanger to redecorate her Parisian home, which was to be outfitted in the most up-to-date 'Antique' style. Due to his duties to the comte d’Artois, Bélanger delegated the work to François-Thérèse Chalgrin. An avid collector and patron of the arts, the duchesse de Mazarin spent liberally, often beyond her means, to furnish her homes and o enrich her collection with the most precious and fashionable objects available. She commissioned pieces from the best craftsmen of her time, including Pierre Gouthière, whose world-renowned ormolu and bleu turquin marble suite was destined for the duchesse’s salon. The famous console table from this suite is at the Frick Collection (acc. no. 15.5.59), and a pair of pedestals were recently sold Christie’s, Paris, 21 November 2023, lot 20 (€1,492,200). Her new fashionable hôtel provided the perfect setting for numerous parties and balls, which further drained the Mazarin coffers. As mentioned above, the duchesse’s financials were in a dire state at the time of her death when she owed Gouthière alone over 100,000 livres. Upon her death, the Mazarin family became extinct, as an edict of 1711 stated that the Mazarin title could only be passed down through male descendants of the original grantee.
SUBSEQUENT PROVENANCE
The nineteenth-century history of this commode is unknown, until it entered the collection of Georges Léopold Halphen and his wife, née Henriette-Antonia Stern, in the late 1800s. During the Second World War the commode, which was now the property of their grandson, Georges Jules Samuel Halphen, was seized by the Germans along with the rest of the Halphen collection. The HAL mark (for Halphen), present on the back of this lot, was applied under the German occupation. After the War, the collection was returned and this commode remained in the Halphen family until the end of the twentieth century.
This striking commode, decorated with refined ormolu mounts, ingeniously incorporates the central drawers and inner structure from a precious seventeenth-century Japanese lacquer cabinet. It is part of a select and luxurious group of commodes featuring Japanese lacquer, which was the most costly and sought-after type of lacquer among enlightened connoisseurs in the eighteenth century. The ingenious and luxurious use of Chinese and Japanese lacquer to decorate pieces of Parisian furniture was the result of the inventiveness of the luxury taste-makers of Paris, the marchands-merciers, who had a monopoly on importing luxury goods such as lacquer and porcelain from Asia and responded with extraordinary imaginativeness to the passion for chinoiserie among collectors throughout the 1700s.
JAPANESE LACQUER COMMODES
Commodes incorporating Japanese cabinets appear as early as the beginning of the eighteenth century and were continuously held in high regard throughout the 1700s. Lacquer cabinets containing numerous drawers concealed by two doors were produced in Asia in the seventeenth century to satisfy the demands of the Western market. Imported from the East Asia, they were immediately coveted by European customers. During the second half of the seventeenth century such cabinets were often used unaltered and placed on elaborate Western stands. It was not until the reign of Louis XV that the marchands-merciers began dismantling cabinets which, with their doors removed, saw their frames containing the original drawers incorporated into western carcases. These new frames were often ebonized and further embellished with japanning and ormolu mounts. The doors of the original cabinets were often used to decorated the sides of these commodes. The marchand Hébert possessed une petite commode de 3 pieds 4 pouces de long garnie de 10 tiroirs de verny de la Chine 120 livres in his shop as early as 1724. On 16 May 1750, Lazare Duvaux delivered to Madame de Pompadour une commode composée de tiroirs d'ancien lacque garnie de bronze doré d'ormolu avec le marbre d'Antin, 864 livres, which is probably the commode subsequently recorded at Saint Ouen in 1764. Likewise, Darnault commissioned BVRB's talents to execute a similar commode which is now in the Louvre (inv. OA 11 745). Finally, in the 1775 inventory following the death of the wife of the prolific marchand Racinel de la Planche, who specialized in lacquer, there is recorded un corps de commode à 10 tiroirs de lacque noir et or, le corps plaqué en ébéne et cannelures avec cadres et anneaux de bronze doré son dessus de marbre portor 360 livres. All of these examples must have paralleled the form of the commode offered here.
BVRB’s commode in the Louvre illustrates the practice of concealing the fact that the drawers were reused, as was common at the time. As the century progressed, the original Asian framework was highlighted to emphasize the exotic nature of the piece, as evidenced by the present commode. The rise of Neoclassicism and the desire to achieve cleaner lines and simpler forms almost necessitated emphasizing the original structure, partially due to the constraints presented by the original Japanese construction. Because the cabinets imported from Japan and China were usually of the same size, measuring at around 40 inches, or 110 centimeters in width, the commodes produced by Parisan ébènistes tend to be of similar size. The most remarkable commodes, all of comparable dimensions, were produced by some of the best-known cabinet-makers of the second half of the eighteenth century, such as Joseph Baumhauer, René Dubois, Etienne Levasseur, Jean-François Leleu, Mathieu-Guillaume Cramer and, as in this case, Claude-Charles Saunier.
Today, only about twenty such commodes are known but due to their similar sizes and decorations, only three can be matched to their original owners with certainty: a pair by Levasseur owned by Pierre Louis-Paul Randon de Boisset, and the present commode from the duchesse de Mazarin. It is primarily the number of drawers that helps differentiate among existing commodes. Other notable eighteenth-century collectors who owned similar commodes include Madame de Pompadour; Louis-Jean Gaignat, secrétaire du Roi; the marchand mercier Jean Rachinel Delaplanche; as well as Randon de Boisset, receveur général des finances de Lyon, whose abovementioned commodes were eventually sold in the twentieth century from the collection of Jaime Ortiz Patiño, Sotheby's, New York, 20 May 1992, lot 85, now in a private collection.
To discover the original owner of the present lot, it is necessary to first identify commodes fitted with ten drawers. One can find about ten such pieces in archival records belonging to a varied group of collectors, including the duc de la Vrillière, ministre de la maison du Roi; Nicolas-Joseph Bergeret de Grancourt; Jean Lemaistre de La Martinière; Harenc de Presle; and the banker Jean-Joseph de Laborde, whose commode by Leleu was seized during the Revolution. Furthermore, a commode with ten drawers attributed to Saunier was delivered in 1791 to the Earl of Spencer by Daguerre, see (F.J.B. Watson, Le Meuble Louis XVI, Paris, 1963, n. 149).
THE MAZARIN PROVENANCE
The present commode was almost certainly supplied to Louise-Jeanne de Durfort de Duras, duchesse de Mazarin and was recorded in her bedroom at the château de Chilly-Mazarin in 1781. The duchesse died in Paris on 17 March 1781 and her home on the quai Malaquais was immediately sealed as she had amassed large debts. An inventory of her château was carried out 9-18 June 1781. Joseph-Alexandre Lebrun, responsible for assessing the precious objects and furniture that were to be auctioned, estimated the ten-drawer lacquer commode in the bedroom at 240 livres. It was offered at public auction on 10 December 1781 as lot 358: une commode de laque noir, avec des oiseaux de relief en or, composée d'un grand tiroir et de neuf petits, avec entrée de serrure & ornements de cuivre doré, & à dessus de marbre d'Italie. The present commode and the duchesse's other possessions from Chilly were not, however, sold until some years later, due to the objections of the her numerous creditors. When the estate was finally sold, between August 1784 and March 1785, the commode was purchased by a Sieur Chevalier, probably an agent who was bidding on behalf of a client, for 408 livres. The Mazarin commode then entered the collection of the abovementioned Jean-Joseph de Laborde (see L'Estampille, l'Objet d'Art, September 1989, no. 228 pp. 66-75). Although the 1781 lot description of the commode from Mazarin’s bedroom lacks dimensions and is somewhat vague, we can be almost certain that it denotes our lot as it is noted to feature birds executed in high relief gold lacquer: avec des oiseaux de relief en or, a unique feature among the known ten-drawer commodes of this type. Additionally, the description also specifies a marbre d'Italie top, which could refer to the Portor marble on this lot. The duchesse de Mazarin's taste for sumptuous pieces in Japanese lacquer is well documented, including a commode and pair of encoignures supplied by Joseph for her Parisian hôtel (now in the British Royal collection), and the exquisite table comprising lot 89 in this sale. Such a taste for Japanese lacquer was no doubt influenced by the fabled Mazarin lacquer coffer, which had been supplied to her family in the seventeenth century, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (acc. no. 412:1,2-1882).
THE DUCHESSE DE MAZARIN
Louise-Jeanne de Durfort, duchesse de Mazarin et de la Meilleraye (1735-1781) was the daughter of the politician and diplomat Emmanuel-Félicité de Durfort (1715-1789) and Charlotte Antoinette de la Porte-Mazarin (1719-1735). In 1747 she married Louis-Marie, duc d'Aumont (1732-1799). Their daughter, Louise d'Aumont (1759-1826), became a Princess of Monaco upon her marriage in 1777 to Jacques François Honoré IV of the Grimaldi family. The duchesse’s main residences were her Parisian hôtel on the quai Malaquais, demolished in the nineteenth century and currently the site of the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris, and the château de Chilly-Mazarin, southwest of Paris, sold by Louise d’Aumont in 1804. In 1774 the duchesse enlisted the services of François-Joseph Bélanger to redecorate her Parisian home, which was to be outfitted in the most up-to-date 'Antique' style. Due to his duties to the comte d’Artois, Bélanger delegated the work to François-Thérèse Chalgrin. An avid collector and patron of the arts, the duchesse de Mazarin spent liberally, often beyond her means, to furnish her homes and o enrich her collection with the most precious and fashionable objects available. She commissioned pieces from the best craftsmen of her time, including Pierre Gouthière, whose world-renowned ormolu and bleu turquin marble suite was destined for the duchesse’s salon. The famous console table from this suite is at the Frick Collection (acc. no. 15.5.59), and a pair of pedestals were recently sold Christie’s, Paris, 21 November 2023, lot 20 (€1,492,200). Her new fashionable hôtel provided the perfect setting for numerous parties and balls, which further drained the Mazarin coffers. As mentioned above, the duchesse’s financials were in a dire state at the time of her death when she owed Gouthière alone over 100,000 livres. Upon her death, the Mazarin family became extinct, as an edict of 1711 stated that the Mazarin title could only be passed down through male descendants of the original grantee.
SUBSEQUENT PROVENANCE
The nineteenth-century history of this commode is unknown, until it entered the collection of Georges Léopold Halphen and his wife, née Henriette-Antonia Stern, in the late 1800s. During the Second World War the commode, which was now the property of their grandson, Georges Jules Samuel Halphen, was seized by the Germans along with the rest of the Halphen collection. The HAL mark (for Halphen), present on the back of this lot, was applied under the German occupation. After the War, the collection was returned and this commode remained in the Halphen family until the end of the twentieth century.