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Lot Essay
The à l’antique form of this impressive tripod gueridon, with its griffin guardian feet and winged female caryatids, is clearly indebted to Parisian prototypes. A group of closely related griffin-supported gueridons is recorded, including one in the Musée Nissim de Camondo, Paris (see S. Legrand-Rossi, Le Mobilier du Musée Nissim de Camondo, Dijon, 2012, pp. 142-3); a further example with more elaborate base and also suspending an urn in the center, formerly in the Utheman collection, St.. Petersburg; one formerly in the collection of Helena Rubinstein and currently on the New York art market; and a fourth example sold from the collection of Boniface de Castellane and Anna Gould, Christie's, Paris, 7 March 2017, lot 116 (€140,000 exc. premium).
Similar winged figures form the supports on a series of candelabra from the 1780s, for instance a pair of candelabra in the Wallace collection with winged sphinxes at the base, a pair in Munich, Schlosserverwaltung with rams and a pair in the Musée Nissim de Camondo with griffins (illustrated, H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, Vol. I, pp. 264-265).
THE ATTRIBUTION TO ST. PETERSBURG
The unusual combination of motifs of this impressive gueridon, particularly the perched birds of the base and the evenly spaced relief elements of the frieze, together with the distinctive nature of the surface treatment, point to a probable Russian origin. It is natural that such à l'antique gueridons would also be executed by bronziers in St. Petersburg, as the latest Parisian fashions set the tone for Russian interiors and works of art in the 1780s and 1790s, all the more so after the celebrated purchases made by the future Tsar and Tsarina Paul I and Maria Feodorovna after their visit to Paris in 1781, when they acquired dazzling furniture and bronzes d'ameublement from the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre.
St. Petersburg bronziers such as K. Dreyer, J. P. Lancry and I. Dippner supplied a series of tripod gueridons of similar inspiration to the Imperial Court during the major furnishing scheme undertaken by Tsar Paul at Pavlovsk Palace in the 1790s (see I. Sychev, Russian Gilt Bronzes, Moscow, 2003, p. 80). The court architect and designer Andrei Voronikhin was closely involved in the refurbishment of Pavlovsk, and it is possible that he supplied the designs for this series of gueridons. A Russian candelabrum of tripod form with related seated griffin supports in the State Hermitage Museum, attributed to St. Petersburg and dated to the late 18th century, is illustrated Sychev op. cit.,p. 78.
Further strengthening an attribution to a St. Petersburg bronzier for this example is the presence of a gueridon of identical design and height, but 6 1/2 inches (16.5cm.) wider and fitted with a specimen marble top, in the collection of the fabled Stroganoff family when it was, along with much of the contents of their St. Petersburg Palace, by the Soviet Government (Lepke, Berlin, May 13, 1931, lot 196). It is interesting to note that the court architect Voronikhin was a protegé of Count Alexandre Stroganoff (1733-1811) and it is therefore plausible that he was responsible for the design for both the Stroganoff gueridon and the example offered here.
PIERRE DELBEE
Pierre Delbée (1900-1974), from whose collection this spectacular gueridon was sold in 1999, was one of the foremost designers of the legendary firm Maison Jansen. Founded in 1880, Maison Jansen rapidly became the decorating firm of choice for the world's elite, with clients ranging from the duc d' Orléans, Boni de Castellane and Anna Gould, the Rothschilds and Rockefellers to Lady Baillie at Leeds Castle and many of the royal houses of Europe. Delbée, a longtime friend of the firm's founder Henri Jansen, joined the company in 1930, and along with his celebrated colleague Stéphane Boudin, worked on some of Jansen's most prestigious commissions, most notably perhaps their most celebrated clients, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, to whom they supplied interiors for their residences in the Bois de Boulogne and the Château de Croë in the South of France. His crowning achievement at the end of his career was to design the pavilions for the extraordinary celebration staged by the Shah of Iran in 1971 to mark the 2,500th anniversary of the founding of the Persian dynasty. The collection in his apartment on the Avenue Foch (which was preserved after his death until the sale of its contents at Christie's Monaco in 1999) was an enticing mélange of Kunstkammer objects, refined neo-classical seat furniture from the Directoire and Empire periods, lacquers and silver-gilt, all with the backdrop of an extraordinary series of ebony and ivory doors inlaid with symbols of geometry and mathematics.
Similar winged figures form the supports on a series of candelabra from the 1780s, for instance a pair of candelabra in the Wallace collection with winged sphinxes at the base, a pair in Munich, Schlosserverwaltung with rams and a pair in the Musée Nissim de Camondo with griffins (illustrated, H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, Vol. I, pp. 264-265).
THE ATTRIBUTION TO ST. PETERSBURG
The unusual combination of motifs of this impressive gueridon, particularly the perched birds of the base and the evenly spaced relief elements of the frieze, together with the distinctive nature of the surface treatment, point to a probable Russian origin. It is natural that such à l'antique gueridons would also be executed by bronziers in St. Petersburg, as the latest Parisian fashions set the tone for Russian interiors and works of art in the 1780s and 1790s, all the more so after the celebrated purchases made by the future Tsar and Tsarina Paul I and Maria Feodorovna after their visit to Paris in 1781, when they acquired dazzling furniture and bronzes d'ameublement from the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre.
St. Petersburg bronziers such as K. Dreyer, J. P. Lancry and I. Dippner supplied a series of tripod gueridons of similar inspiration to the Imperial Court during the major furnishing scheme undertaken by Tsar Paul at Pavlovsk Palace in the 1790s (see I. Sychev, Russian Gilt Bronzes, Moscow, 2003, p. 80). The court architect and designer Andrei Voronikhin was closely involved in the refurbishment of Pavlovsk, and it is possible that he supplied the designs for this series of gueridons. A Russian candelabrum of tripod form with related seated griffin supports in the State Hermitage Museum, attributed to St. Petersburg and dated to the late 18th century, is illustrated Sychev op. cit.,p. 78.
Further strengthening an attribution to a St. Petersburg bronzier for this example is the presence of a gueridon of identical design and height, but 6 1/2 inches (16.5cm.) wider and fitted with a specimen marble top, in the collection of the fabled Stroganoff family when it was, along with much of the contents of their St. Petersburg Palace, by the Soviet Government (Lepke, Berlin, May 13, 1931, lot 196). It is interesting to note that the court architect Voronikhin was a protegé of Count Alexandre Stroganoff (1733-1811) and it is therefore plausible that he was responsible for the design for both the Stroganoff gueridon and the example offered here.
PIERRE DELBEE
Pierre Delbée (1900-1974), from whose collection this spectacular gueridon was sold in 1999, was one of the foremost designers of the legendary firm Maison Jansen. Founded in 1880, Maison Jansen rapidly became the decorating firm of choice for the world's elite, with clients ranging from the duc d' Orléans, Boni de Castellane and Anna Gould, the Rothschilds and Rockefellers to Lady Baillie at Leeds Castle and many of the royal houses of Europe. Delbée, a longtime friend of the firm's founder Henri Jansen, joined the company in 1930, and along with his celebrated colleague Stéphane Boudin, worked on some of Jansen's most prestigious commissions, most notably perhaps their most celebrated clients, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, to whom they supplied interiors for their residences in the Bois de Boulogne and the Château de Croë in the South of France. His crowning achievement at the end of his career was to design the pavilions for the extraordinary celebration staged by the Shah of Iran in 1971 to mark the 2,500th anniversary of the founding of the Persian dynasty. The collection in his apartment on the Avenue Foch (which was preserved after his death until the sale of its contents at Christie's Monaco in 1999) was an enticing mélange of Kunstkammer objects, refined neo-classical seat furniture from the Directoire and Empire periods, lacquers and silver-gilt, all with the backdrop of an extraordinary series of ebony and ivory doors inlaid with symbols of geometry and mathematics.