.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Michel Cresson, maître in 1740.
Richly carved with rocaille motifs deployed symmetrically across its frame, this bed forms part of one of France’s most exceptional decorative ensembles, originally executed for Louis II du Bouchet, marquis de Sourches (1711-1788) at the château d’Abondant in Eure-et-Loire.
This bed is closely related to the furniture from the grand salon of the château which is currently preserved, along with the original boiseries, in the Louvre (OA 11240-11247). Louis II du Bouchet, marquis de Sourches inherited the Louis XIII-style château d’Abondant in 1746. He set about enlarging it with two lateral pavilions under the direction of the architect Mansart de Jouy (1705-1783), grandson of Louis XIV’s architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart. A number of Parisian artisans worked on the decoration in the years 1745-50 and in the right-hand pavilion of the residence created an ensemble of rooms with shared decorative schemes: the grand salon, the salon de Pékin and the chambre turque. The bed formed part of the furnishings of the chambre turque which was decorated, furniture included, in the same grey-green scheme as the grand salon. Like this bed, the furniture of the grand salon was also carved with flower sprays and large rocaille cartouches. The rich carving, used soberly across the bed, is typical of the development of the rococo style in the mid-18th century and the similarities between the bed and the furniture in the grand salon, some of which are stamped M CRESSON, firmly supports an attribution to Michel Cresson (1709-1773).
Shortly after its completion, the marquis de Sourches gave the château d’Abondant to his nine year old son Louis Emmanuel (1742-1755) at whose death it passed to his younger son Louis-François (1744 -1786), marquis de Tourzel. The marquis de Tourzel married Félicité de Croÿ d’Havré in 1764 who later became the governess of the royal children of France, famous for joining the royal family in their ill-fated flight to Varennes. Elevated at the Bourbon restoration in 1816 to duchesse de Tourzel, she was Abondant’s most famous resident and lived there intermittently until 1832. Her descendant the Comtesse Lafond sold the château in 1902 and installed the ensemble of the grand salon in her Parisian townhouse. The residence then played host to Parisian high society, first as home to the American financier Henry Herman Harjes and then to Jules de Koenigswarter and his wife Pannonica de Rothschild.
Created by one of Paris’s most talented menuisiers for a highly important and wide-ranging commission, this bed is a rare and beautiful example of aristocratic interior decoration in the Louis XV period.
Michel Cresson, maître in 1740.
Richly carved with rocaille motifs deployed symmetrically across its frame, this bed forms part of one of France’s most exceptional decorative ensembles, originally executed for Louis II du Bouchet, marquis de Sourches (1711-1788) at the château d’Abondant in Eure-et-Loire.
This bed is closely related to the furniture from the grand salon of the château which is currently preserved, along with the original boiseries, in the Louvre (OA 11240-11247). Louis II du Bouchet, marquis de Sourches inherited the Louis XIII-style château d’Abondant in 1746. He set about enlarging it with two lateral pavilions under the direction of the architect Mansart de Jouy (1705-1783), grandson of Louis XIV’s architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart. A number of Parisian artisans worked on the decoration in the years 1745-50 and in the right-hand pavilion of the residence created an ensemble of rooms with shared decorative schemes: the grand salon, the salon de Pékin and the chambre turque. The bed formed part of the furnishings of the chambre turque which was decorated, furniture included, in the same grey-green scheme as the grand salon. Like this bed, the furniture of the grand salon was also carved with flower sprays and large rocaille cartouches. The rich carving, used soberly across the bed, is typical of the development of the rococo style in the mid-18th century and the similarities between the bed and the furniture in the grand salon, some of which are stamped M CRESSON, firmly supports an attribution to Michel Cresson (1709-1773).
Shortly after its completion, the marquis de Sourches gave the château d’Abondant to his nine year old son Louis Emmanuel (1742-1755) at whose death it passed to his younger son Louis-François (1744 -1786), marquis de Tourzel. The marquis de Tourzel married Félicité de Croÿ d’Havré in 1764 who later became the governess of the royal children of France, famous for joining the royal family in their ill-fated flight to Varennes. Elevated at the Bourbon restoration in 1816 to duchesse de Tourzel, she was Abondant’s most famous resident and lived there intermittently until 1832. Her descendant the Comtesse Lafond sold the château in 1902 and installed the ensemble of the grand salon in her Parisian townhouse. The residence then played host to Parisian high society, first as home to the American financier Henry Herman Harjes and then to Jules de Koenigswarter and his wife Pannonica de Rothschild.
Created by one of Paris’s most talented menuisiers for a highly important and wide-ranging commission, this bed is a rare and beautiful example of aristocratic interior decoration in the Louis XV period.