19TH CENTURY, THE UPPER PORCELAIN VASES PROBABLY QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

Carlos de Beistegui (1895-1970) hailed from a Basque family, which had made their fortune in silver mining in Mexico in the 19th century. His uncle, also named Carlos (1863-1953) moved to France from Mexico City in 1876, and collected a vast and magnificent collection of artwork later donated to the Louvre museum. As a boy, the younger Carlos (or, ‘Charlie’), attended Eton and then traveled widely, across Europe, to India and China.

The perpetually curious collector became a fixture in high society, and he became known for his aesthetic eye and devotion to objets of the past, namely Neoclassical and Baroque. In the early 20th century, an age of modernist minimalism, his taste became popular amongst many of his peers and spawned the term ‘taste Beistegui’. While frequently noted for his legendary masked ball in 1951 at the Palazzo Labia in Venice, his true masterpiece ended up being the Château de Groussay. The château was built in 1815 for the Duchess of Charost, daughter of the governess to the children of King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. Charles purchased it in 1938, and added two additional wings in 1952 with the help of artists Emilio Terry and Alexandre Serebriakoff.

These torchères were located in the Galerie Louis XIII, one of the curved colonnades leading to pavilions that de Beistegui added to the château in the 1950s. The Galerie Louis XIII led to Salon Hollandais in the west pavilion which was balanced by the theatre in the east pavilion. The Salon Hollandais and the adjoining Salle à Manger Hollandaise were a celebration of the Dutch Golden Age. Thus it is no surprise that a set of four bronze-mounted Delft tile wall lights from the Getty Collection are also from the Château de Groussay (see lot 130 in this sale).

Beistegui continued to live in and work on the Château de Groussay until he died in 1970 at the age of 74. The Château de Groussay was designated a historic monument in 1993.