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Lot Essay
This elegant guéridon is attributable to the Parisian Manufacture de Vernis sur Métaux Deharme on the basis of a virtually identical guéridon from a pair executed by the ateliers circa 1802-1807 and discussed by C. Huchet de Quénetain in les Styles Consulat et Empire, Paris, 2005, pp.50-51 (ill. p.50 and reproduced here).
THE FASHION FOR TôLE AND STEEL FURNITURE
The fashion for luxurious objects and furniture made of tôle peinte and steel - undoubtedly imitating silver - became au goût du jour in the 1780s, reaching its apogee during the Directoire and Consulat periods. The Garde-Meuble Royal lists commissions by Jubault, Deumier, Tranoi, Perrache, Turquoi, Chaille, and Royal locksmith Jacques-Antoine Courbin who is recorded to have supplied polished steel beds for the apartments of the Royal princes between 1784 and 1787. It is in the early 1790s however that the taste for polished steel and tôle furniture or objets d'art became more prevalent. The Manufacture de Vernis sur Métaux Deharme which specialized predominantly in varnished or gilt-japanned tole pieces was opened by Blaise-Louis Deharme circa 1791-2.
DEHARME AT FONTAINEBLEAU
The most sumptuous pieces executed by the ateliers Deharme include a varnished tôle table, the feet adorned with medallions allegorical of Science and the Arts commissioned by the Ministre de l'Intérieur Chaptal in 1801. It was presented a year later at the Exposition des Produits de l'industrie where it was awarded a mention honorable, and was later moved to the Salon de Musique of Impératrice Joséphine at the château des Tuileries. It is now in the château de Fontainebleau (inv. F117c) and discussed by C. Huchet de Quénetain, Ibid.
THE NAPOLEONIC CONNECTION
The ateliers Deharme received further commissions from Chaptal for 'modèles de grands vases propres à server d'ornements à une des salles du palais du gouvernement and supplied him with a 'candélabre stile romain' and 'un vase à la Médicis' (inv. L.P.3274/3276, now in the Musée du Louvre and discussed Ibid.). Further important commissions from the Manufacture included the 'escalier d'honneur or banister for the Palais de l'Elysée, executed in gilt and bronzed lead and tôle and delivered in 1806 to Joachim Murat (1767-1815), brother-in-law of Napoléon I and King of Naples between 1808 and 1815. The banister was presented by Deharme at the 1806 Exposition des Produits de l'Industrie to great acclaim: 'les portions d'une rampe de meilleur goût exécutée pour le grand-duc de Berg' [Joachim Murat between 1806 and 1808] 'avec une composition métallique dure, sonore, aussi belle que l'argent le mieux poli'. Deharme supplied a plethora of pieces to Napoléon I's sister Pauline Borghèse (1780-1825) for the hôtel de Charost, among which a cassolette (currently in the Hôtel's Salon Bleu), several vases and oil lamps as well as a bath tub executed in tôle peinte simulating granite.
A pair of gilt-japanned tole oil-lamps attributed to the workshops Deharme on the basis of a design by the atelier in the Bibliothèque Marmottan in Paris (ill. in N. de Reynies, le Mobilier Domestique, Paris, 1987, vol. II, p.731, fig.2712) was sold at Christie's, London, 14 December 1995, lot 252 (£9,775 with premium).
THE FASHION FOR TôLE AND STEEL FURNITURE
The fashion for luxurious objects and furniture made of tôle peinte and steel - undoubtedly imitating silver - became au goût du jour in the 1780s, reaching its apogee during the Directoire and Consulat periods. The Garde-Meuble Royal lists commissions by Jubault, Deumier, Tranoi, Perrache, Turquoi, Chaille, and Royal locksmith Jacques-Antoine Courbin who is recorded to have supplied polished steel beds for the apartments of the Royal princes between 1784 and 1787. It is in the early 1790s however that the taste for polished steel and tôle furniture or objets d'art became more prevalent. The Manufacture de Vernis sur Métaux Deharme which specialized predominantly in varnished or gilt-japanned tole pieces was opened by Blaise-Louis Deharme circa 1791-2.
DEHARME AT FONTAINEBLEAU
The most sumptuous pieces executed by the ateliers Deharme include a varnished tôle table, the feet adorned with medallions allegorical of Science and the Arts commissioned by the Ministre de l'Intérieur Chaptal in 1801. It was presented a year later at the Exposition des Produits de l'industrie where it was awarded a mention honorable, and was later moved to the Salon de Musique of Impératrice Joséphine at the château des Tuileries. It is now in the château de Fontainebleau (inv. F117c) and discussed by C. Huchet de Quénetain, Ibid.
THE NAPOLEONIC CONNECTION
The ateliers Deharme received further commissions from Chaptal for 'modèles de grands vases propres à server d'ornements à une des salles du palais du gouvernement and supplied him with a 'candélabre stile romain' and 'un vase à la Médicis' (inv. L.P.3274/3276, now in the Musée du Louvre and discussed Ibid.). Further important commissions from the Manufacture included the 'escalier d'honneur or banister for the Palais de l'Elysée, executed in gilt and bronzed lead and tôle and delivered in 1806 to Joachim Murat (1767-1815), brother-in-law of Napoléon I and King of Naples between 1808 and 1815. The banister was presented by Deharme at the 1806 Exposition des Produits de l'Industrie to great acclaim: 'les portions d'une rampe de meilleur goût exécutée pour le grand-duc de Berg' [Joachim Murat between 1806 and 1808] 'avec une composition métallique dure, sonore, aussi belle que l'argent le mieux poli'. Deharme supplied a plethora of pieces to Napoléon I's sister Pauline Borghèse (1780-1825) for the hôtel de Charost, among which a cassolette (currently in the Hôtel's Salon Bleu), several vases and oil lamps as well as a bath tub executed in tôle peinte simulating granite.
A pair of gilt-japanned tole oil-lamps attributed to the workshops Deharme on the basis of a design by the atelier in the Bibliothèque Marmottan in Paris (ill. in N. de Reynies, le Mobilier Domestique, Paris, 1987, vol. II, p.731, fig.2712) was sold at Christie's, London, 14 December 1995, lot 252 (£9,775 with premium).