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拍品專文
Laurent Félix, maître in 1755.
With its pierced rocaille mounts, curvaceous form and chinoiserie decoration, this impressive commode stamped by Laurent Félix epitomises the Louis XV fascination for the Orient and the then prevalent goût for all things exotic. Decorated with lustrous panels of Chinese black and gilt lacquer set within foliate and rockwork framing mounts, the present commode was conceived in the mid-18th century tradition of the fashionable Parisian dealers or marchands-merciers who had perfected the art of marrying the exoticism of oriental lacquer with European ébénisterie of the finest quality.
Little is known of the enigmatic Laurent Félix and his work. However, he is known to have produced an important and very closely related commode which bears both his stamp and that of fellow ébéniste Adrien Delorme (maître in 1748), previously in the collection of Count Sapia di Lancia, of near identical outline, also decorated with luxurious Chinese lacquer panels and, perhaps most notably, exhibiting near identical mounts. Like the Sapia di Lancia commode, which sold Christie's Monaco, 21 June 1998, lot 605 and subsequently anonymously at Sotheby's, London, 21 May 2019, lot 195 (£125,000 including premium), the present example displays the same audacious and finely-executed encadrement mounts, which although arranged slightly differently, are similarly designed incorporating the drawer handles in continuity with the sinuous rocaille and foliate scrolls to the cartouche-shaped front.
The overall design of the present commode is also closely related to the celebrated commode in Japanese lacquer executed by B.V.R.B. and delivered by the marchand-mercier Thomas-Joachim Hébert to Queen Marie Leczinska (1703-68) for her cabinet at the château de Fontainebleau, now in the Louvre (OA 11193). Delivered in 1737, Maria Leczinska's commode marks an important milestone in the history of French furniture, as it was the first piece of lacquered furniture known to have been acquired by the French crown. A further closely related commode by Mathieu Criaerd (maître in 1738) in vernis Martin imitating Chinese lacquer, with virtually identical framing mounts arranged in cartouche-form and with integral handles, is illustrated in T. Wolvesperges, Le Meuble Français en Laque au XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 2000, p. 301.
The Collection of Henry Ford II ~ An Early Acquisition?
It is clear that Henry Ford II set out to amass an important collection when serious purchases began in earnest for the interiors of his mansion at Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, during the 1950s. Decorated by the celebrated New York interior design firm McMillen, the house at Grosse Pointe Farms was by far their most important commission of the period and in her 1982 book on McMillen’s work, Sixty Years of Interior Design: The World of McMillen, Erica Brown describes the treasure hunt undertaken by the Fords and Marion Morgan (the McMillen expert on 18th century design) both around Europe as well as from the top American dealers of the day. Their ‘shopping trip’ to England and France in February and March 1957 was especially productive. Based at the Ford’s Grosvenor House apartment, they discovered treasures including the Grendey red lacquer bureau-cabinet at Partridge’s, as well as the Vulliamy clock at Phillips of Hitchin which are included in part I of The Collection of Mrs Henry Ford II, to be offered at Christie's, New York, on 30 March (lots 12 & 25).
Whilst it has not been possible to trace this commode in the photographs and watercolours of the interiors of Henry Ford II's earlier Michigan home, and the inventory to which the inventory number relates is not known to survive, the tantalisingly brief Ford inventory number 'L-4', suggests it was an early purchase and it is entirely conceivable that the commode may have been acquired from the celebrated Mayfair antique dealer, Kenneth Neame, during the 1957 trip. Established in the years following the Second World War, Kenneth Neame has counted amongst his clients names such as Baroness Thatcher, Gianni Versace, Valentino, Brook Astor, Bunny Mellon, Daisy Fellowes, HRH Princess Soraya, Pamela Harriman, Vivian Leigh, Ava Gardner, Ralph Richardson, Margaret Leighton, Madame Rochas, Estée Lauder, Helena Rubenstein and Rudolf Nureyev, and Mr Neame continues to trade today.
The Ford inventory numbers that many of the pieces in the London and New York auctions bear are witness to the conscious formation of an important collection and interestingly they are closely paralleled in the inventory numbers which were used for the Wrightsman Collection, created at a similar time.
With its pierced rocaille mounts, curvaceous form and chinoiserie decoration, this impressive commode stamped by Laurent Félix epitomises the Louis XV fascination for the Orient and the then prevalent goût for all things exotic. Decorated with lustrous panels of Chinese black and gilt lacquer set within foliate and rockwork framing mounts, the present commode was conceived in the mid-18th century tradition of the fashionable Parisian dealers or marchands-merciers who had perfected the art of marrying the exoticism of oriental lacquer with European ébénisterie of the finest quality.
Little is known of the enigmatic Laurent Félix and his work. However, he is known to have produced an important and very closely related commode which bears both his stamp and that of fellow ébéniste Adrien Delorme (maître in 1748), previously in the collection of Count Sapia di Lancia, of near identical outline, also decorated with luxurious Chinese lacquer panels and, perhaps most notably, exhibiting near identical mounts. Like the Sapia di Lancia commode, which sold Christie's Monaco, 21 June 1998, lot 605 and subsequently anonymously at Sotheby's, London, 21 May 2019, lot 195 (£125,000 including premium), the present example displays the same audacious and finely-executed encadrement mounts, which although arranged slightly differently, are similarly designed incorporating the drawer handles in continuity with the sinuous rocaille and foliate scrolls to the cartouche-shaped front.
The overall design of the present commode is also closely related to the celebrated commode in Japanese lacquer executed by B.V.R.B. and delivered by the marchand-mercier Thomas-Joachim Hébert to Queen Marie Leczinska (1703-68) for her cabinet at the château de Fontainebleau, now in the Louvre (OA 11193). Delivered in 1737, Maria Leczinska's commode marks an important milestone in the history of French furniture, as it was the first piece of lacquered furniture known to have been acquired by the French crown. A further closely related commode by Mathieu Criaerd (maître in 1738) in vernis Martin imitating Chinese lacquer, with virtually identical framing mounts arranged in cartouche-form and with integral handles, is illustrated in T. Wolvesperges, Le Meuble Français en Laque au XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 2000, p. 301.
The Collection of Henry Ford II ~ An Early Acquisition?
It is clear that Henry Ford II set out to amass an important collection when serious purchases began in earnest for the interiors of his mansion at Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, during the 1950s. Decorated by the celebrated New York interior design firm McMillen, the house at Grosse Pointe Farms was by far their most important commission of the period and in her 1982 book on McMillen’s work, Sixty Years of Interior Design: The World of McMillen, Erica Brown describes the treasure hunt undertaken by the Fords and Marion Morgan (the McMillen expert on 18th century design) both around Europe as well as from the top American dealers of the day. Their ‘shopping trip’ to England and France in February and March 1957 was especially productive. Based at the Ford’s Grosvenor House apartment, they discovered treasures including the Grendey red lacquer bureau-cabinet at Partridge’s, as well as the Vulliamy clock at Phillips of Hitchin which are included in part I of The Collection of Mrs Henry Ford II, to be offered at Christie's, New York, on 30 March (lots 12 & 25).
Whilst it has not been possible to trace this commode in the photographs and watercolours of the interiors of Henry Ford II's earlier Michigan home, and the inventory to which the inventory number relates is not known to survive, the tantalisingly brief Ford inventory number 'L-4', suggests it was an early purchase and it is entirely conceivable that the commode may have been acquired from the celebrated Mayfair antique dealer, Kenneth Neame, during the 1957 trip. Established in the years following the Second World War, Kenneth Neame has counted amongst his clients names such as Baroness Thatcher, Gianni Versace, Valentino, Brook Astor, Bunny Mellon, Daisy Fellowes, HRH Princess Soraya, Pamela Harriman, Vivian Leigh, Ava Gardner, Ralph Richardson, Margaret Leighton, Madame Rochas, Estée Lauder, Helena Rubenstein and Rudolf Nureyev, and Mr Neame continues to trade today.
The Ford inventory numbers that many of the pieces in the London and New York auctions bear are witness to the conscious formation of an important collection and interestingly they are closely paralleled in the inventory numbers which were used for the Wrightsman Collection, created at a similar time.