The Property of THE J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM

*A LOUIS XVI STYLE ORMOLU AND SÈVRES PORCELAIN-MOUNTED MAHOGANY SATINWOOD AND TULIPWOOD SECRÉTAIRE À ABATTANT

SECOND HALF 19TH CENTURY, THE SÈVRES PORCELAIN PLAQUE CIRCA 1775

Details

*A LOUIS XVI STYLE ORMOLU AND SÈVRES PORCELAIN-MOUNTED MAHOGANY SATINWOOD AND TULIPWOOD SECRÉTAIRE À ABATTANT
second half 19th century, the sèvres porcelain plaque circa 1775
The D-shaped white marble top with a ¾ gallery above a drapery swag frieze above a panelled fall-front centering a circular soft-paste Sèvres porcelain plaque painted with a flower basket suspended from a twisted blue tied ribbon, with roses, narcissi, lilacs and jasmine, within a rose-painted border on a turquoise-blue ground within a leaf-tip cast surround, the angles inset with triangular hard-paste porcelain plaques painted with rose stems, enclosing a fitted interior, the bowed sides with three open galleried shelves, the stand with a central frieze drawer mounted with a circular hardpaste porcelain plaque painted with rose stems flanked by similar shaped porcelain plaques, on square tapering faux-panelled legs headed by leaf-tip-cast hanging collars with foliate-cast tapering feet, the back bearing a stamp LELEU JME and branded MA beneath a crown, the underside with a metal label stamped HAMILTON PLACE, the circular porcelain plaque painted on the reverse with blue crossed L's, a newspaper underneath the marble top inscribed by HJ Hatfield and Sons who cleaned the secrétaire in 1973
50¾in. (129cm.) high, 34¼in. (87cm.) wide, 14in. (35.5cm.) deep

Provenance

Probably Baron Lionel de Rothschild (1808-1874), Gunnersbury or New Court, Middlesex
Leopold de Rothschild (1845-1917), Hamilton Place, London, by 1889
Edmund de Rothschild (b. 1916), London
Frank Green, Esq., Ashwick House, Dulverton, Somerset, sold September 19, 1947
With Frank Partridge and Sons, Ltd., London
Purchased by J. Paul Getty, October 1950

Literature

J. Paul Getty, The Joys of Collecting, New York, 1965, p. 154
R. Savill, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of the Sèvres Porcelain, London, 1988, vol. 2, p. 879, no. 49, p. 901
A. Sassoon, Vincennes and Sèvres Porcelain, Catalogue of the Collections, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1991, no. 36, pp. 178-180
C. Bremer-David, Decorative Arts, An Illustrated Summary Catalogue of the Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1993, p. 45, no. 55

Lot Essay

The central circular plaque on the fallfront of this secretaire can be dated circa 1775. The decoration is very similar to that of two other plaques of this shape and size both dated 1775, one on a secretaire in the J. Paul Getty Museum (illustrated C. Bremer-David, op. cit., p. 39, no. 47 and fully discussed in A. Sassoon, op. cit., pp. 174-176, no. 35), the other on a guéridon stamped by Carlin and Pafrat in the Jones Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, illustrated A. Pradère, French Furniture Makers, Paris, 1989, p. 359, fig. 427. This guéridon was given by Marie-Antoinette to Mrs. William Eden, later Lady Auckland, in 1787. Both plaques were painted by Jean-Jacques Pierre le jeune and are inscribed in ink 216 indicating a price of 216 livres.
The plaque on this secrétaire is of the size described as grande plaque ronde first recorded in the Sèvres records in 1764. The dealer Poirier purchased a number of plaques priced between 72 and 216 livres including two plaques rondes and another of unspecified shape for 216 livres each in the first six months of 1775. Daguerre purchased a plaque of unspecified shape and decoration for 240 livres in the first half of 1777 and three plaques for 216 livres each in 1778. Two others priced at 192 and 216 livres each are listed under pièces extraordinaires in 1770. Such plaques were intended for secretaires, commodes and cabinets as well as table tops.
In addition to Pierre le jeune, the Sèvres artists' Ledgers list Jean-Baptiste Tandart, Michel-Gabriel Commelin and Edmé-François Bouillat as painting plaques rondes of this size in 1777-79. Tandart painted 1 Plaque Ronde 1ere gr. with flowers in September 1777, a large oval plaque with basket of flowers in February 1778 and a circular plaque of the largest size with flowers in June 1779. Commelin painted a circular plaque of the largest size with flowers in August 1779. In May 1779 Bouillat painted Petites roses on two Plaques ronde 1e Bordure bleu celeste.

HAMILTON PLACE
5 Hamilton Place, now 5 Curzon Street, London was the private residence of Léopold de Rothschild (1845-1917). Built by Henry Huth and Rogers in 1881, it was decorated with Louis XV and Louis XVI panelling. Léopold de Rothschild inherited along with his two brothers the collection of his father Lionel. Unlike them, Léopold was not a collector and it is therefore probable that the Getty secretaire came from his father.