FRENCH, LATE 17TH OR EARLY 18TH CENTURY

Details

A BRONZE FIGURE OF CUPID
French, late 17th or early 18th Century
On an integrally cast plinth and a later oval slate plinth; the reverse edge of the bronze plinth inscribed '424-7'; the underside of the slate plinth with collection label 'COLLECTION No 7. WERNHER'. Dark brown patina with greenish brown high areas; the bow later; losses; very minor dents.
13½ in. (34.4 cm.) high

Provenance

Sir Julius Wernher, 1st Bt. (1850-1912), Bath House, London, in the Red Room, by whom bequeathed, with a life interest to his widow, Alice, Lady Wernher, subsequently Lady Ludlow (1862-1945), to their son
Sir Harold Wernher, 3rd Bt., G.C.V.O. (1893-1973), Bath House, London, and from November 1948, Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire, and by descent.

Literature

1913 Bath House Inventory, no. 7, p. 2, in the Red Room.
1914 Wernher Inventory, no. 7, p. 2

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
F.J.B. Watson, Wallace Collection Catalogues: Furniture, London, 1956, no. F93, p. 61-62, pl. 59.
G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor - Furniture, Clocks and Gilt Bronzes, I, Fribourg, 1974, no. 5, pp. 59-61.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The present model of Cupid, looking up expectantly and with his right arm stretched in front of him, was originally part of a larger composition including Venus, to whom he presents his arrows. The composition can be seen on several clocks of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: for example see the Louis XV clock in the Wallace Collection, London, with gilt-bronze figures (Watson, loc. cit.) or the one at Waddeston Manor, in which the figures are patinated bronze (de Bellaigue, op. cit., p. 61).

Although there is no firm evidence regarding the original design of the the Venus and Cupid on the clock case, it has been suggested in the Waddesdon Manor catalogue (op. cit., p. 60) that it might be the work of André-Charles Boulle or possibly Jacques Thuret. The latter was known to have been free of guild influence and therefore could design and cast his own bronzes.

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