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拍品專文
THE DESIGN
This superb clock, with its pierced lid for incense and drum supported by sacred silvered swans on a pedestal with Bacchic frieze, is in the form of a sacrificial altar and reflects the new passion for antiquity that swept Paris with the emergence of the goût grec in the 1760s. Its lid relates to those on the model of athénienne popularized by Jean-Henri Eberts in an engraving of circa 1773, accompanied by a caption indicating that it was a ‘Nouveau Meuble/Servant/de console/de Casolette…’; furthermore, the distinctive form suggests an incense-burning cassolette, an item which was the height of fashion at this time.
A letter from two fashionable ladies of the time, Lady Montagu to Madame du Deffand in 1778, suggests that the burning of incense in the cassolettes being gifted to the latter would lead to her being treated like a goddess:
"Il ne me reste qu'une ressource, c'est de vous traiter comme une Divinité et de vous offrir simplement de l'encens: c'est le culte le plus pur et le moins téméraire. Je vous prie, madame, de me permettre de vous offrir deux cassolettes, où j'ai mis des aromatiques…de l'encens que je vous présente puisse-t-il vous faire entendre tout le respect, l'attachement et la reconnaissance avec lesquels j'ai l'honneur d'être…"
-H. Henry, Dictionnaire de l'ameublement et de la décoration, Depuis le XIIIe siècle jusqu'à nos jours, Paris, n.d.).
Swans are emblematic of the cult of Love and were sacred to the goddess Venus who was often depicted riding on a swan. A drawing for a swan-supported vase, attributed to the neo-classical painter Hubert Robert, was offered Christie’s, New York, 11 January 1994, lot 312, while this same ‘antique’ vase was drawn circa 1771-73 by the influential designer Jean-Guillaume Moitte (1746-1810), illustrated in G. Gramaccini, Jean-Guillaume Moitte (1746-1810): Life and Work, Berlin, 1993, vol. II, p. 161. The model for a swan-supported vase was also adopted by the progressive neo-classical designer Charles de Wailly (1730-1798) and appears in his Première Suite de Vases published in 1760 (illustrated in S. Eriksen, Early Neoclassicism in France, London, 1974, fig. 330).
A protégé of the Marquis de Marigny and his sister Madame de Pompadour, de Wailly was one of the first proponents of the new à la grecque style following a stay in Italy in 1754-57 when he studied the ancient monuments of Rome. De Wailly also supplied a number of designs for Russian clients in the 1770s, including the Empress Catherine the Great and Counts Stroganoff and Cheremetieff, and it is therefore interesting to note a cassolette of virtually the same design (but without a clock and with simpler base), almost certainly from the Russian Imperial collections, which was sold at Lepke in Berlin in 1928 and more recently at Christie’s, Paris, 22 June 2004, lot 350 (€250,250).
Only one other version of this rare model of clock is known, in a private collection in Paris, and possesses a frieze of putti, while two other versions of the cassolette without a clock are recorded:
-One with bronze rather than silvered swans in the collection of John Edward Taylor, sold Christie’s, London, July 1912, lot 544, and subsequently sold from the collection of Sigismond Bardac, Paris, 9 December 1927, lot 79 (bought by Founés)
-One with rouge griotte marble plinth, like this clock, recorded in the Imperial Russian collection at Gatchina Palace in 1914.
THE PROVENANCE
Although its earlier provenance is not known, this remarkable clock is recorded in the collection of the distinguished nineteenth-century politician François Marie Taillepied, vicomte de Bondy (1802-1890). De Bondy was the Prefect for Yonne in 1834 and was made a pair de France in 1841. He was forced to leave politics following the revolution of 1848 but returned in 1871 when he represented the Département of L’Indre. Interestingly his father-in-law was the famous banker François-Alexandre Seillière, who, along with his son Florentin-Achille, Baron Seillière (1813-1873) amassed a significant collection including Boulle furniture and one of the most important libraries of the period, their properties included the Château de Mello and the Hôtel Kinsky.
This superb clock, with its pierced lid for incense and drum supported by sacred silvered swans on a pedestal with Bacchic frieze, is in the form of a sacrificial altar and reflects the new passion for antiquity that swept Paris with the emergence of the goût grec in the 1760s. Its lid relates to those on the model of athénienne popularized by Jean-Henri Eberts in an engraving of circa 1773, accompanied by a caption indicating that it was a ‘Nouveau Meuble/Servant/de console/de Casolette…’; furthermore, the distinctive form suggests an incense-burning cassolette, an item which was the height of fashion at this time.
A letter from two fashionable ladies of the time, Lady Montagu to Madame du Deffand in 1778, suggests that the burning of incense in the cassolettes being gifted to the latter would lead to her being treated like a goddess:
"Il ne me reste qu'une ressource, c'est de vous traiter comme une Divinité et de vous offrir simplement de l'encens: c'est le culte le plus pur et le moins téméraire. Je vous prie, madame, de me permettre de vous offrir deux cassolettes, où j'ai mis des aromatiques…de l'encens que je vous présente puisse-t-il vous faire entendre tout le respect, l'attachement et la reconnaissance avec lesquels j'ai l'honneur d'être…"
-H. Henry, Dictionnaire de l'ameublement et de la décoration, Depuis le XIIIe siècle jusqu'à nos jours, Paris, n.d.).
Swans are emblematic of the cult of Love and were sacred to the goddess Venus who was often depicted riding on a swan. A drawing for a swan-supported vase, attributed to the neo-classical painter Hubert Robert, was offered Christie’s, New York, 11 January 1994, lot 312, while this same ‘antique’ vase was drawn circa 1771-73 by the influential designer Jean-Guillaume Moitte (1746-1810), illustrated in G. Gramaccini, Jean-Guillaume Moitte (1746-1810): Life and Work, Berlin, 1993, vol. II, p. 161. The model for a swan-supported vase was also adopted by the progressive neo-classical designer Charles de Wailly (1730-1798) and appears in his Première Suite de Vases published in 1760 (illustrated in S. Eriksen, Early Neoclassicism in France, London, 1974, fig. 330).
A protégé of the Marquis de Marigny and his sister Madame de Pompadour, de Wailly was one of the first proponents of the new à la grecque style following a stay in Italy in 1754-57 when he studied the ancient monuments of Rome. De Wailly also supplied a number of designs for Russian clients in the 1770s, including the Empress Catherine the Great and Counts Stroganoff and Cheremetieff, and it is therefore interesting to note a cassolette of virtually the same design (but without a clock and with simpler base), almost certainly from the Russian Imperial collections, which was sold at Lepke in Berlin in 1928 and more recently at Christie’s, Paris, 22 June 2004, lot 350 (€250,250).
Only one other version of this rare model of clock is known, in a private collection in Paris, and possesses a frieze of putti, while two other versions of the cassolette without a clock are recorded:
-One with bronze rather than silvered swans in the collection of John Edward Taylor, sold Christie’s, London, July 1912, lot 544, and subsequently sold from the collection of Sigismond Bardac, Paris, 9 December 1927, lot 79 (bought by Founés)
-One with rouge griotte marble plinth, like this clock, recorded in the Imperial Russian collection at Gatchina Palace in 1914.
THE PROVENANCE
Although its earlier provenance is not known, this remarkable clock is recorded in the collection of the distinguished nineteenth-century politician François Marie Taillepied, vicomte de Bondy (1802-1890). De Bondy was the Prefect for Yonne in 1834 and was made a pair de France in 1841. He was forced to leave politics following the revolution of 1848 but returned in 1871 when he represented the Département of L’Indre. Interestingly his father-in-law was the famous banker François-Alexandre Seillière, who, along with his son Florentin-Achille, Baron Seillière (1813-1873) amassed a significant collection including Boulle furniture and one of the most important libraries of the period, their properties included the Château de Mello and the Hôtel Kinsky.