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拍品专文
René Dubois, maître in 1757.
René Dubois continued to use his father's stamp after the later died in 1763.
These spectacular ebony tables, as much inspired by the grandeur of Boulle as by the uncompromising à la grecque style of the 1760s, have formed part of a succession of celebrated collections in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The only other pair of tables of this avant garde model was sold from the famed Stroganov Collection in Berlin on 13 May 1931, as lots 218 and 219, and were subsequently recorded in the prestigious Schlumberger Collection in Paris and sold Sotheby's, Monaco, 26-27 February 1992, lot 50.
RENE DUBOIS AND HIS NEOCLASSICISM
René Dubois (1737-1799) was the son of Jacques Dubois (1693-1763, maître in 1742), arguably one of the most accomplished ébénistes of the Louis XV era. Following his father's death in1763, René took charge of the atelier under the direction of his mother and continued to use his father's stamp. The inventory taken at the death of Jacques Dubois lists une table de bois d'amarante à la grecque, demonstrating that the Dubois workshop produced furniture in the latest antique fashion and suggesting that René had introduced a more up-to-date manner in the workshop during his father’s lifetime. In 1772, René's mother granted him full direction of the workshop, selling the stock to him for 25,002 livres, a significant sum indicating the continued importance of the workshop. René is recorded in the 1779 Almanach général des marchands as the ébéniste de la Reine, and also counted the Prince de Soubise amongst his patrons.
Today, Dubois is best known for his elegant and matured Neoclassical creations produced after his complete takeover of his father’s workshop in the early 1770s, such as his green and grisaille-decorated commodes and secretaires and Greek-key-inlaid restrained bureaux. However, it is important to note that Dubois was among the first proponents of the goût grec. His early pioneering work produced during the first decade of his maîtrise can be characterized by the new Neoclassical style combined with the Baroque grandeur of Boulle's work with dramatic contrasts of black and gold.
There are a number of similarities between these console tables and the most famous suite of early Neoclassical furniture: that made for Ange-Laurent de Lalive de Jully, from which a cabinet is offered as lot 27 in this sale (another table from the suite was sold from the collection of Sydell Miller, see Christie’s, New York, 10 June 2021, lot 111.) The number of similarities between the Getty consoles and the famed suite suggests Dubois’ familiarity with Lalive de Jully’s pieces. Besides the most apparent parallel in color scheme, similarities include the type and use of ormolu applied and the design of the legs. Lot 27 in this sale and the table sold in these rooms in 2021 are fitted with robust ormolu mounts cast with bold motifs comparable to those found on the Getty console tables: whereas the cabinet and the table are mounted with a Vitruvian scroll, this lot is decorated with ribbon-tied berried oakleaves in a similar manner. The Getty consoles and the Miller center table are raised on very similar, essentially identical, fluted legs lined with brass and mounted with husks. Both lots’ legs terminate in acanthus-cast ormolu mounts and are capped with egg-and-dart-cast rings. The Miller table’s legs were probably re-used and possibly originally from a piece executed by Boulle himself. Boulle’s influence on Dubois is evident in not only the Getty and Miller lots, but also in the Tilsit Table featuring spirally fluted legs with sculptural triton supports, see S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France, London, 1974, fig. 102, a mahogany bureau plat with similar legs sold Christie’s, London, 7 July 2016, lot 325, and a pair of brass-inlaid ebony encoignures with ribbon-tied berried oak leaf ormolu mounts sold Sotheby’s, New York, 13-15 October 1983, lot 449. In addition to the legs and the shape of the stretcher, the oversized ormolu acanthus-cast volutes are further indications of Dubois’ appreciation for Boulle's aesthetic. Clearly Neoclassical in design, the sheer size and placement of these mounts evoke the architectural majesty of the French Baroque. The skill with which they were cast and then affixed to the tables, is testament to Dubois’ excellence and inventiveness both as a designer and a craftsman. These tables are therefore, in a way, updated versions of Boulle's consoles.
CLUMBER PARK
These consoles were probably acquired by the 4th Duke of Newcastle, who inherited the title in 1794 at the tender age of ten. A noted Francophile, he even spent four years in a French jail while travelling in France at the outbreak of the Napoleonic wars. Clumber Park had been built in a fashionable Palladian style in 1760 for the 1st Duke to designs by the architect Stephen Wright. The 4th Duke commissioned the architect Sidney Smirke to add a new library in 1829 and it was probably around this time that the consoles were acquired, a period when many of the great English collections of French furniture were being formed. Since the Getty tables appear to have Russian porphyry tops, it is possible that they were acquired by the Duke separately and put on the consoles replacing their original tops, which may have been white marble like those on the Stroganov pair. Interestingly, Count Stroganov was in charge of the Imperial stone cutting manufactories and had access to the most unusual and precious stones for his own collection. Collecting objects of Russian manufacture, and particularly those made of exotic Siberian stones, had been a popular trend among English collectors since the 1790s. Russian works were very much in circulation in England by the early nineteenth century and collectors such as William Beckford are known to have enriched their collections with them.
A view of the library in a 1908 Country Life article on Clumber hints at the original magnificence of the collection. The interiors at the time must have been eccentric and wonderfully diverse, as furnishings decorated with Boulle marquetry were mixed with early Neoclassical pieces. Nothing illustrates the Baroque end of this design-duality at Clumber more than a Louis XIV ormolu-mounted and brass-inlaid Boulle marquetry ebony commode by Nicolas Sageot from Clumber sold Christie’s, London, 16 December 1999, lot 50. This juxtaposition of styles coincidentally provided the perfect setting for these consoles by Dubois. Clumber was eventually demolished in 1938, its remaining contents being sold by Christie's in 1937. Another treasure in the Getty collection from Clumber Park is Bernardo Bellotto's masterpiece Venice, the Grand Canal with the Rialto Bridge seen from the South, offered as lot 14 in this sale.
THELMA CHRYSLER FOY (1902-1957)
Thelma Chrysler Foy, elder daughter of Walter Chrysler, was a celebrated society hostess, dubbed by the New York Times as 'the woman of the greatest taste...in New York'. Known for her impeccable taste in both art and fashion, she appeared several times on the annual list of the ten best dressed women in the country. Thelma and her husband Byron Foy owned an extensive and well-known collection of French Impressionist art that they used to accent their homes furnished lavishly with eighteenth-century French furniture, as it was de rigueur at the time. Their collection included works by the best in both fine and decorative arts, such as Carlin, Weisweiler, Oeben, Renoir, Degas, Vuillard, Houdon, Falconet, Clodion and Giovanni da Bologna, to name a few. Thelma’s influence on the new generation of socialites was immense and many followed her stylistic choices when creating their homes. In fact, Jayne Wrightsman, undoubtedly one of the greatest collectors of eighteenth-century French decorative arts in America, was much inspired by the Foys' collecting. Thelma and Byron shared spectacular residences, including an apartment at 740 Park Avenue, a town house on 91st street originally built by the Vanderbilts, and a country estate in Locust Valley. Parke Bernet offered her extensive collection from both her Park Avenue and Locust Valley residences in a landmark series of auctions 13-23 May 1959. Pieces from her estate are now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, including Picasso’ L'Acteur, a pair of fauteuils by Chevigny, and a Louis XIV Boulle marquetry bureau plat. A portion of her wardrobe is preserved at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Among her sumptuous jewelry was a stunning 54.03 carat pear-shaped diamond necklace that recently sold Christie’s, New York, 8 June 2021, lot 135.
MADAME RUEFF AND GEORGES GEFFROY
These consoles are shown in a photograph taken of the dining room of Mme. André Rueff (1900-1983) in her house at Neuilly. The house was decorated in the 1960s by Georges Geffroy, a close friend of Mme. Rueff and long-time shopping companion on trips to the antique dealers of Paris. The consoles were almost certainly chosen by Geffroy and he placed them in the dining room in a scheme inspired by Ange-Jacques Gabriel’s opéra-royal at Versailles which had recently been refurbished and renovated in 1957. Placed against walls decorated with faux-marble panels, and supplemented by ormolu wall lights after a model by Boulle, Geffroy was cleverly referring to the Louis XVI Boulle revival in this lavish and intelligent recreation of the décor of Versailles in the last decades of the Ancien Régime. Née Giséle Béghin as daughter of the sugar tycoon Joseph Béghin, Mme. Rueff was a great lover of eighteenth-century decorative arts as well as French impressionist paintings and assembled an impressive collection. The abovementioned wall lights were sold recently from the collection of the late Hubert de Givenchy, see Christie’s, Paris, 14 June 2022, lot 23.
René Dubois continued to use his father's stamp after the later died in 1763.
These spectacular ebony tables, as much inspired by the grandeur of Boulle as by the uncompromising à la grecque style of the 1760s, have formed part of a succession of celebrated collections in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The only other pair of tables of this avant garde model was sold from the famed Stroganov Collection in Berlin on 13 May 1931, as lots 218 and 219, and were subsequently recorded in the prestigious Schlumberger Collection in Paris and sold Sotheby's, Monaco, 26-27 February 1992, lot 50.
RENE DUBOIS AND HIS NEOCLASSICISM
René Dubois (1737-1799) was the son of Jacques Dubois (1693-1763, maître in 1742), arguably one of the most accomplished ébénistes of the Louis XV era. Following his father's death in1763, René took charge of the atelier under the direction of his mother and continued to use his father's stamp. The inventory taken at the death of Jacques Dubois lists une table de bois d'amarante à la grecque, demonstrating that the Dubois workshop produced furniture in the latest antique fashion and suggesting that René had introduced a more up-to-date manner in the workshop during his father’s lifetime. In 1772, René's mother granted him full direction of the workshop, selling the stock to him for 25,002 livres, a significant sum indicating the continued importance of the workshop. René is recorded in the 1779 Almanach général des marchands as the ébéniste de la Reine, and also counted the Prince de Soubise amongst his patrons.
Today, Dubois is best known for his elegant and matured Neoclassical creations produced after his complete takeover of his father’s workshop in the early 1770s, such as his green and grisaille-decorated commodes and secretaires and Greek-key-inlaid restrained bureaux. However, it is important to note that Dubois was among the first proponents of the goût grec. His early pioneering work produced during the first decade of his maîtrise can be characterized by the new Neoclassical style combined with the Baroque grandeur of Boulle's work with dramatic contrasts of black and gold.
There are a number of similarities between these console tables and the most famous suite of early Neoclassical furniture: that made for Ange-Laurent de Lalive de Jully, from which a cabinet is offered as lot 27 in this sale (another table from the suite was sold from the collection of Sydell Miller, see Christie’s, New York, 10 June 2021, lot 111.) The number of similarities between the Getty consoles and the famed suite suggests Dubois’ familiarity with Lalive de Jully’s pieces. Besides the most apparent parallel in color scheme, similarities include the type and use of ormolu applied and the design of the legs. Lot 27 in this sale and the table sold in these rooms in 2021 are fitted with robust ormolu mounts cast with bold motifs comparable to those found on the Getty console tables: whereas the cabinet and the table are mounted with a Vitruvian scroll, this lot is decorated with ribbon-tied berried oakleaves in a similar manner. The Getty consoles and the Miller center table are raised on very similar, essentially identical, fluted legs lined with brass and mounted with husks. Both lots’ legs terminate in acanthus-cast ormolu mounts and are capped with egg-and-dart-cast rings. The Miller table’s legs were probably re-used and possibly originally from a piece executed by Boulle himself. Boulle’s influence on Dubois is evident in not only the Getty and Miller lots, but also in the Tilsit Table featuring spirally fluted legs with sculptural triton supports, see S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France, London, 1974, fig. 102, a mahogany bureau plat with similar legs sold Christie’s, London, 7 July 2016, lot 325, and a pair of brass-inlaid ebony encoignures with ribbon-tied berried oak leaf ormolu mounts sold Sotheby’s, New York, 13-15 October 1983, lot 449. In addition to the legs and the shape of the stretcher, the oversized ormolu acanthus-cast volutes are further indications of Dubois’ appreciation for Boulle's aesthetic. Clearly Neoclassical in design, the sheer size and placement of these mounts evoke the architectural majesty of the French Baroque. The skill with which they were cast and then affixed to the tables, is testament to Dubois’ excellence and inventiveness both as a designer and a craftsman. These tables are therefore, in a way, updated versions of Boulle's consoles.
CLUMBER PARK
These consoles were probably acquired by the 4th Duke of Newcastle, who inherited the title in 1794 at the tender age of ten. A noted Francophile, he even spent four years in a French jail while travelling in France at the outbreak of the Napoleonic wars. Clumber Park had been built in a fashionable Palladian style in 1760 for the 1st Duke to designs by the architect Stephen Wright. The 4th Duke commissioned the architect Sidney Smirke to add a new library in 1829 and it was probably around this time that the consoles were acquired, a period when many of the great English collections of French furniture were being formed. Since the Getty tables appear to have Russian porphyry tops, it is possible that they were acquired by the Duke separately and put on the consoles replacing their original tops, which may have been white marble like those on the Stroganov pair. Interestingly, Count Stroganov was in charge of the Imperial stone cutting manufactories and had access to the most unusual and precious stones for his own collection. Collecting objects of Russian manufacture, and particularly those made of exotic Siberian stones, had been a popular trend among English collectors since the 1790s. Russian works were very much in circulation in England by the early nineteenth century and collectors such as William Beckford are known to have enriched their collections with them.
A view of the library in a 1908 Country Life article on Clumber hints at the original magnificence of the collection. The interiors at the time must have been eccentric and wonderfully diverse, as furnishings decorated with Boulle marquetry were mixed with early Neoclassical pieces. Nothing illustrates the Baroque end of this design-duality at Clumber more than a Louis XIV ormolu-mounted and brass-inlaid Boulle marquetry ebony commode by Nicolas Sageot from Clumber sold Christie’s, London, 16 December 1999, lot 50. This juxtaposition of styles coincidentally provided the perfect setting for these consoles by Dubois. Clumber was eventually demolished in 1938, its remaining contents being sold by Christie's in 1937. Another treasure in the Getty collection from Clumber Park is Bernardo Bellotto's masterpiece Venice, the Grand Canal with the Rialto Bridge seen from the South, offered as lot 14 in this sale.
THELMA CHRYSLER FOY (1902-1957)
Thelma Chrysler Foy, elder daughter of Walter Chrysler, was a celebrated society hostess, dubbed by the New York Times as 'the woman of the greatest taste...in New York'. Known for her impeccable taste in both art and fashion, she appeared several times on the annual list of the ten best dressed women in the country. Thelma and her husband Byron Foy owned an extensive and well-known collection of French Impressionist art that they used to accent their homes furnished lavishly with eighteenth-century French furniture, as it was de rigueur at the time. Their collection included works by the best in both fine and decorative arts, such as Carlin, Weisweiler, Oeben, Renoir, Degas, Vuillard, Houdon, Falconet, Clodion and Giovanni da Bologna, to name a few. Thelma’s influence on the new generation of socialites was immense and many followed her stylistic choices when creating their homes. In fact, Jayne Wrightsman, undoubtedly one of the greatest collectors of eighteenth-century French decorative arts in America, was much inspired by the Foys' collecting. Thelma and Byron shared spectacular residences, including an apartment at 740 Park Avenue, a town house on 91st street originally built by the Vanderbilts, and a country estate in Locust Valley. Parke Bernet offered her extensive collection from both her Park Avenue and Locust Valley residences in a landmark series of auctions 13-23 May 1959. Pieces from her estate are now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, including Picasso’ L'Acteur, a pair of fauteuils by Chevigny, and a Louis XIV Boulle marquetry bureau plat. A portion of her wardrobe is preserved at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Among her sumptuous jewelry was a stunning 54.03 carat pear-shaped diamond necklace that recently sold Christie’s, New York, 8 June 2021, lot 135.
MADAME RUEFF AND GEORGES GEFFROY
These consoles are shown in a photograph taken of the dining room of Mme. André Rueff (1900-1983) in her house at Neuilly. The house was decorated in the 1960s by Georges Geffroy, a close friend of Mme. Rueff and long-time shopping companion on trips to the antique dealers of Paris. The consoles were almost certainly chosen by Geffroy and he placed them in the dining room in a scheme inspired by Ange-Jacques Gabriel’s opéra-royal at Versailles which had recently been refurbished and renovated in 1957. Placed against walls decorated with faux-marble panels, and supplemented by ormolu wall lights after a model by Boulle, Geffroy was cleverly referring to the Louis XVI Boulle revival in this lavish and intelligent recreation of the décor of Versailles in the last decades of the Ancien Régime. Née Giséle Béghin as daughter of the sugar tycoon Joseph Béghin, Mme. Rueff was a great lover of eighteenth-century decorative arts as well as French impressionist paintings and assembled an impressive collection. The abovementioned wall lights were sold recently from the collection of the late Hubert de Givenchy, see Christie’s, Paris, 14 June 2022, lot 23.