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Lot Essay
This magnificent secrétaire was bought in 1804 in Paris by Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, from the marchand-mercier Martin-Eloi Lignereux. The 1804 bill signed by Lignereux still exists in the family archives and reads:
Un autre grand secrétaire en armoire en bois d'acajou moucheté premire qualité, dont l'intérieur des tiroirs en bois acajou avec caisson, dans le bas dudit meuble d'autres tiroirs avec une caisse fermée avec ressorts ledit secrétaire orné de bronze dorée et porté... quatre griffes en bronze couleur antique... avec faux marbre
........................................................1536 livres
Thomas, 7th Earl of Elgin
Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and 11th Earl of Kincardine (1766-1841), the Scottish peer, diplomat, and descendant of Robert the Bruce, is best known for removing sculptures and sections of the frieze from the Parthenon in Athens. The contentious documentation permitting Elgin to do this had been acquired from the Ottoman Empire whilst he was Ambassador to Constantinople, 1799-1803. On 11 March 1799, prior to taking up his diplomatic appointment to the Court of Selim III, Elgin married the young Mary Hamilton Nisbet, the only daughter of William Hamilton Nisbet of Dirleton and Belhaven and heiress to his large fortune. The Elgins were popular in Constantinople, evidenced by the famous firman granting the removal of the Parthenon marbles, and moreover Elgin was an effective envoy, furthering British interests and influence during the war between the Ottomans and the French armies of the young Napoleon Bonaparte. At the end of his embassy, the Elgins travelled back from Constantinople by land through France, having been assured safe-passage. However, when the Peace of Amiens came to an end, they were seized by Napoleon, with Elgin himself even being imprisoned for a time. They lived under house-arrest in Paris, with their relationship souring and their resources depleting - not aided by prolonged negotiations with the British Government over payment for the Parthenon marbles. Having acquired a taste for French life and decoration whilst studying in Paris in 1785, it is perhaps not surprising that Elgin frequented the showrooms of the Parisian marchand-merciers, including that of Martin-Eloi Lignereux, spending a considerable amount of their dwindling fortune on a large number of paintings, furniture and objects. Lord Elgin's frivolous expenditure of his wife's inheritance cannot have helped a relationship already under strain, and, with the facial disfigurement Elgin suffered as a result of illness (reported to be syphilis), was undoubtedly a major factor in the eventual breakdown of their marriage - Lady Elgin returned home alone from France, embarking on an affair with one of her escorts. Lord Elgin sued his wife's lover for a large amount of money, and her for divorce in 1807-8. Elgin did return to Britain for a time, and eventually secured 35,000 from the British Government for the marbles and was married for a second time to Elizabeth (1790-1860), youngest daughter of James Townsend Oswald of Dunnikier. However, the costs of living at his estate at Broomhall proved too high and the Elgins returned to Paris, where Lord Elgin remained until his death in 1841. The present secrétaire and other items purchased in Paris were most probably transported to Broomhall from Paris either circa 1807 or following Elgin's death in 1841.
Lignereux & the Marchand-merciers
The marchand-merciers in Paris were hugely influential in determining taste, fashion, design and innovations in decoration during the latter part of the reign of Louis XVI and into the early 19th century. The hyphenated term is used to indicate their dual role as both merchants of objets d'art and as designers and interior decorators. They were members of the Parisian Mercers' Guild, but were not constrained by the strict regulations that were applied to craftsmen, as they did not have their own workshops. The marchand-merciers were mostly established in the rue St. Honoré, where they dealt in objects of art and furniture both imported from aboard and acquired from local craftsmen; they acted as intermediaries between the makers and the clients - commissioning pieces directly for the former and advising the latter. It was not unusual for a marchand-mercier to request that a piece of furniture could be adapted to please the taste of a certain client. These men were inextricably linked with the evolution of Parisian furniture - initiating and influencing fashions through their control over craftsmen and filling a fundamental role in the formation of many of the greatest collections of the period.
Martin-Eloi Lignereux (c. 1750-1809) was born in Cuvilly in the Valois. He married Anne-Henriette Demilliville and had one daughter, Adélaide-Anne, who married Franois-Honoré Jacob-Desmalter on 14 March 1798. During the 1780s Lignereux became a partner in the firm of the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre in the rue St. Honoré, which he took over completely in 1793. In 1799 he established further premises in the rue Christine, before settling at 41 rue Taitbout from 1803, where he also managed the dépôt des porcelaines nationales de Sèvres.
Lignereux, Weisweiler and Thomire
An almost identical secrétaire to the Elgin example was formerly at galerie Jean Gismondi in Paris (C.H. de Quénetain, Les Styles Consulat et Empire, Paris, 2005, p. 145, fig. 112). Of the same form and proportions though veneered with flamed mahogany rather than plum-pudding mahogany and its fluted uprights filled with brass filets rather than chandelles, De Quénetain attributes it to both Pierre-Philippe Thomire and Martin-Eloi Lignereux. He states that the latter had, by the start of the Consulat, commercialised this Thomire model of "secréaire à placage d'acajou flammé ou moucheté repose soit sur des pieds toupies, soit sur des pieds à griffes de lions" though not including any porcelain plaques, such as those adorning a secrétaire in the Second Antichamber at Pavlovsk. Another almost identical secrétaire with pieds toupies and again in flamed mahogany, was formerly at Castle Howard, Yorkshire, sold Sotheby's house sale, 11 November 1991, lot 162.
All three of these mahogany secrétaires share characteristics - the panelled front and sides above panelled cupboard doors flanked by fluted uprights, the ormolu panels to the base and (two of the three examples) the distinctive pieds de griffes, with the back feet set at right angles to the front feet - with a secrétaire abattant and commode vantaux possibly originally ordered by Tsar Paul I for Mikhailovsky Palace, but never delivered, formerly in the collection of the Dukes of Hamilton, Hamilton Palace, from at least 1825 until sold in the Hamilton Palace sale of 1882, and recently sold from the Collection of Lily & Edmond J. Safra, Sotheby's New York, 18 October 2011, lot 749 ($6,914,500). The latter suite is part of a small group of furniture which, it has been suggested, was the result of collaboration between Adam Weisweiler and Pierre-Philippe Thomire under the direction of Lignereux (J.-P. Samoyault, Le Mobilier Français Consulat et Empire, Paris, 2009, pp. 31-33; de Quénetain, op. cit., p. 148, figs. 117 & 118). This select group comprises two other suites of furniture, each consisting of a commode à vantaux and a secrétaire à abattant: a suite in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg; and a suite split between the Spanish Royal Palaces of Aranjuez and El Pardo, Madrid. Though none of these three suites is stamped, several characteristics of each suite and of the three mahogany secretaries discussed above point to their authorship: the use of exotic timbers or other materials as the main fond - in this case acajou moucheté - the superior quality of the ébénisterie, the beautifully chased ormolu mounts, and the distinctive lion's paw feet. The same feet, though completely gilded, also adorn a pair of ormolu and pietra dura mounted ebony meubles d'appui supplied by Lignereux, Thomire and Weisweiler in 1800 and at one time belonging to the Grand Duchess Olga (1822-92), daughter of Tsar Nicholas I and wife of King Karl of Wurtemburg (de Quénetain, op. cit., p. 135, fig. 102).
On 9 January 1804, at a cost of 3,288 Livres, Lord Elgin purchased a secrétaire from Martin-Eloi Lignereux, which was undoubtedly also the result of a collaboration between Lignereux, Thomire and Weisweiler - veneered in thuya, mounted with ormolu and bronze, the fall-front mounted with a Sèvres porcelain plaque of La Halte des chasseurs, after Carel van Falens. Supported on kneeling winged Egyptian figures, this secrétaire clearly shows the fashion for Egyptomania that rose to prominence during the Empire period. This secrétaire was sold at Sotheby's London, 12 June 1992, lot 306, and was acquired for the collections of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).
Un autre grand secrétaire en armoire en bois d'acajou moucheté premire qualité, dont l'intérieur des tiroirs en bois acajou avec caisson, dans le bas dudit meuble d'autres tiroirs avec une caisse fermée avec ressorts ledit secrétaire orné de bronze dorée et porté... quatre griffes en bronze couleur antique... avec faux marbre
........................................................1536 livres
Thomas, 7th Earl of Elgin
Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and 11th Earl of Kincardine (1766-1841), the Scottish peer, diplomat, and descendant of Robert the Bruce, is best known for removing sculptures and sections of the frieze from the Parthenon in Athens. The contentious documentation permitting Elgin to do this had been acquired from the Ottoman Empire whilst he was Ambassador to Constantinople, 1799-1803. On 11 March 1799, prior to taking up his diplomatic appointment to the Court of Selim III, Elgin married the young Mary Hamilton Nisbet, the only daughter of William Hamilton Nisbet of Dirleton and Belhaven and heiress to his large fortune. The Elgins were popular in Constantinople, evidenced by the famous firman granting the removal of the Parthenon marbles, and moreover Elgin was an effective envoy, furthering British interests and influence during the war between the Ottomans and the French armies of the young Napoleon Bonaparte. At the end of his embassy, the Elgins travelled back from Constantinople by land through France, having been assured safe-passage. However, when the Peace of Amiens came to an end, they were seized by Napoleon, with Elgin himself even being imprisoned for a time. They lived under house-arrest in Paris, with their relationship souring and their resources depleting - not aided by prolonged negotiations with the British Government over payment for the Parthenon marbles. Having acquired a taste for French life and decoration whilst studying in Paris in 1785, it is perhaps not surprising that Elgin frequented the showrooms of the Parisian marchand-merciers, including that of Martin-Eloi Lignereux, spending a considerable amount of their dwindling fortune on a large number of paintings, furniture and objects. Lord Elgin's frivolous expenditure of his wife's inheritance cannot have helped a relationship already under strain, and, with the facial disfigurement Elgin suffered as a result of illness (reported to be syphilis), was undoubtedly a major factor in the eventual breakdown of their marriage - Lady Elgin returned home alone from France, embarking on an affair with one of her escorts. Lord Elgin sued his wife's lover for a large amount of money, and her for divorce in 1807-8. Elgin did return to Britain for a time, and eventually secured 35,000 from the British Government for the marbles and was married for a second time to Elizabeth (1790-1860), youngest daughter of James Townsend Oswald of Dunnikier. However, the costs of living at his estate at Broomhall proved too high and the Elgins returned to Paris, where Lord Elgin remained until his death in 1841. The present secrétaire and other items purchased in Paris were most probably transported to Broomhall from Paris either circa 1807 or following Elgin's death in 1841.
Lignereux & the Marchand-merciers
The marchand-merciers in Paris were hugely influential in determining taste, fashion, design and innovations in decoration during the latter part of the reign of Louis XVI and into the early 19th century. The hyphenated term is used to indicate their dual role as both merchants of objets d'art and as designers and interior decorators. They were members of the Parisian Mercers' Guild, but were not constrained by the strict regulations that were applied to craftsmen, as they did not have their own workshops. The marchand-merciers were mostly established in the rue St. Honoré, where they dealt in objects of art and furniture both imported from aboard and acquired from local craftsmen; they acted as intermediaries between the makers and the clients - commissioning pieces directly for the former and advising the latter. It was not unusual for a marchand-mercier to request that a piece of furniture could be adapted to please the taste of a certain client. These men were inextricably linked with the evolution of Parisian furniture - initiating and influencing fashions through their control over craftsmen and filling a fundamental role in the formation of many of the greatest collections of the period.
Martin-Eloi Lignereux (c. 1750-1809) was born in Cuvilly in the Valois. He married Anne-Henriette Demilliville and had one daughter, Adélaide-Anne, who married Franois-Honoré Jacob-Desmalter on 14 March 1798. During the 1780s Lignereux became a partner in the firm of the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre in the rue St. Honoré, which he took over completely in 1793. In 1799 he established further premises in the rue Christine, before settling at 41 rue Taitbout from 1803, where he also managed the dépôt des porcelaines nationales de Sèvres.
Lignereux, Weisweiler and Thomire
An almost identical secrétaire to the Elgin example was formerly at galerie Jean Gismondi in Paris (C.H. de Quénetain, Les Styles Consulat et Empire, Paris, 2005, p. 145, fig. 112). Of the same form and proportions though veneered with flamed mahogany rather than plum-pudding mahogany and its fluted uprights filled with brass filets rather than chandelles, De Quénetain attributes it to both Pierre-Philippe Thomire and Martin-Eloi Lignereux. He states that the latter had, by the start of the Consulat, commercialised this Thomire model of "secréaire à placage d'acajou flammé ou moucheté repose soit sur des pieds toupies, soit sur des pieds à griffes de lions" though not including any porcelain plaques, such as those adorning a secrétaire in the Second Antichamber at Pavlovsk. Another almost identical secrétaire with pieds toupies and again in flamed mahogany, was formerly at Castle Howard, Yorkshire, sold Sotheby's house sale, 11 November 1991, lot 162.
All three of these mahogany secrétaires share characteristics - the panelled front and sides above panelled cupboard doors flanked by fluted uprights, the ormolu panels to the base and (two of the three examples) the distinctive pieds de griffes, with the back feet set at right angles to the front feet - with a secrétaire abattant and commode vantaux possibly originally ordered by Tsar Paul I for Mikhailovsky Palace, but never delivered, formerly in the collection of the Dukes of Hamilton, Hamilton Palace, from at least 1825 until sold in the Hamilton Palace sale of 1882, and recently sold from the Collection of Lily & Edmond J. Safra, Sotheby's New York, 18 October 2011, lot 749 ($6,914,500). The latter suite is part of a small group of furniture which, it has been suggested, was the result of collaboration between Adam Weisweiler and Pierre-Philippe Thomire under the direction of Lignereux (J.-P. Samoyault, Le Mobilier Français Consulat et Empire, Paris, 2009, pp. 31-33; de Quénetain, op. cit., p. 148, figs. 117 & 118). This select group comprises two other suites of furniture, each consisting of a commode à vantaux and a secrétaire à abattant: a suite in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg; and a suite split between the Spanish Royal Palaces of Aranjuez and El Pardo, Madrid. Though none of these three suites is stamped, several characteristics of each suite and of the three mahogany secretaries discussed above point to their authorship: the use of exotic timbers or other materials as the main fond - in this case acajou moucheté - the superior quality of the ébénisterie, the beautifully chased ormolu mounts, and the distinctive lion's paw feet. The same feet, though completely gilded, also adorn a pair of ormolu and pietra dura mounted ebony meubles d'appui supplied by Lignereux, Thomire and Weisweiler in 1800 and at one time belonging to the Grand Duchess Olga (1822-92), daughter of Tsar Nicholas I and wife of King Karl of Wurtemburg (de Quénetain, op. cit., p. 135, fig. 102).
On 9 January 1804, at a cost of 3,288 Livres, Lord Elgin purchased a secrétaire from Martin-Eloi Lignereux, which was undoubtedly also the result of a collaboration between Lignereux, Thomire and Weisweiler - veneered in thuya, mounted with ormolu and bronze, the fall-front mounted with a Sèvres porcelain plaque of La Halte des chasseurs, after Carel van Falens. Supported on kneeling winged Egyptian figures, this secrétaire clearly shows the fashion for Egyptomania that rose to prominence during the Empire period. This secrétaire was sold at Sotheby's London, 12 June 1992, lot 306, and was acquired for the collections of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).