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Lot Essay
The design for these elegant gueridons was almost certainly provided by Dominique Daguerre, the celebrated marchand-mercier, whose innovative 'arabesque' and 'Etruscan' furniture incorporating costly materials gained him much acclaim in the last quarter of the 18th Century. Daguerre probably developed the present model circa 1785, as the sale of M. Bergeret on 24 April 1786 lists one example with a porphyry top: ‘388 Une table de porphyre, ronde, suportée par un pied en bronze à trois consoles à bandeaux, a baguettes dorées, & anneaux; le tout lié par doubles baguettes de forme triangulaire. Hauteur 26 pouces, diametre 14 pouces.’ The table was sold for 340 livres to M. Letoffé.
In the last years of the 18th Century, Daguerre subsequently developed this fine and delicate model into a more solid version with reeded legs and a circular undertier matching the top. In 1805, Jacob-Desmalter supplied a large gueridon of this model for the Salon des Glaces in the Grand Trianon (D. Ledoux-Lebard, Inventaire General du Musée de Versailles et des Trianons, vol. I, 1975, pp. 40-41). Two further pairs of gueridons of this heavier model are known: one with black marble tops sold from the collection of M. Hubert de Givenchy, 4 December 1993, lot 86 (FF. 1,443,000) (see fig. 3), and another, with porphyry tops sold from the collection of Mrs Alice Tully, 26-28 October 1994 ($134,000).
A gueridon from the collection of baronne Roger de Sivry, sold Paris, 22 March 1904, lot 206 and subsequently in the collection of Madame Barletta de Cates, sold Christie's Paris, 18 March 2003 (€82.250), is faintly stamped by Adam Weisweiler with whom Daguerre collaborated on numerous occasions. It is therefore possible that Weisweiler also made the structure of the present pair of gueridons. A further gueridon, virtually identical to the present example and that mentioned in the Bergeret sale, was commissioned by Daguerre between November 1788 and April 1789 and was fitted with a superb Sèvres porcelain top decorated by Bouillat pere with a flower basket within arabesque borders (sold from the collection of a Nobleman, Christie's London, 17 June 1987 (£110.000).
In the last years of the 18th Century, Daguerre subsequently developed this fine and delicate model into a more solid version with reeded legs and a circular undertier matching the top. In 1805, Jacob-Desmalter supplied a large gueridon of this model for the Salon des Glaces in the Grand Trianon (D. Ledoux-Lebard, Inventaire General du Musée de Versailles et des Trianons, vol. I, 1975, pp. 40-41). Two further pairs of gueridons of this heavier model are known: one with black marble tops sold from the collection of M. Hubert de Givenchy, 4 December 1993, lot 86 (FF. 1,443,000) (see fig. 3), and another, with porphyry tops sold from the collection of Mrs Alice Tully, 26-28 October 1994 ($134,000).
A gueridon from the collection of baronne Roger de Sivry, sold Paris, 22 March 1904, lot 206 and subsequently in the collection of Madame Barletta de Cates, sold Christie's Paris, 18 March 2003 (€82.250), is faintly stamped by Adam Weisweiler with whom Daguerre collaborated on numerous occasions. It is therefore possible that Weisweiler also made the structure of the present pair of gueridons. A further gueridon, virtually identical to the present example and that mentioned in the Bergeret sale, was commissioned by Daguerre between November 1788 and April 1789 and was fitted with a superb Sèvres porcelain top decorated by Bouillat pere with a flower basket within arabesque borders (sold from the collection of a Nobleman, Christie's London, 17 June 1987 (£110.000).