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Lot Essay
The plate bears the arms of Geneviève Dollu, daughter of N... Dollu, Seigneur Malvoisine et d'Ivoy and Catherine Pichonat. She married Jean-Jacques de Mesmes, Seigneur des Arches, Conseiller au Grand Conseil, Maître des Requètes ordinaire de l'Hôtel and finally Président au Grand Conseil. Dollu's father-in-law was the celebrated Jean-Jacques de Mesmes, Seigneur de Roissy, Lieutenant Civil de Paris, Ambassadeur and Conseiller d'Etat who had married Nicole Hennequin on November 8, 1530.
Pierre Reymond (b. 1513), whose earliest dated works are from the 1530's, made some of the most extravagantly decorated enamel in France during the 16th century. His specialty was table ware in grisaille -- often inspired from prints and engravings by Lucas van Leyden, Dürer and Marcantinio Raimondi -- but in the last thirty years of his life his production centered around the biblical engravings of Bernard Salomon.
While undated, the present plate closely resembles Reymond's work of the 1560's -- not only in the depiction of the figures in the central scene -- but in the decorative details of the strapwork and grotesque elements. A grisaille ewer, originally from the Earl of Rosebery's collection at Mentmore, with a frieze nearly identical to the present plate was sold Sotheby's New York, 27 November 1981, lot 54.
Pierre Reymond (b. 1513), whose earliest dated works are from the 1530's, made some of the most extravagantly decorated enamel in France during the 16th century. His specialty was table ware in grisaille -- often inspired from prints and engravings by Lucas van Leyden, Dürer and Marcantinio Raimondi -- but in the last thirty years of his life his production centered around the biblical engravings of Bernard Salomon.
While undated, the present plate closely resembles Reymond's work of the 1560's -- not only in the depiction of the figures in the central scene -- but in the decorative details of the strapwork and grotesque elements. A grisaille ewer, originally from the Earl of Rosebery's collection at Mentmore, with a frieze nearly identical to the present plate was sold Sotheby's New York, 27 November 1981, lot 54.