.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Adam Weisweiler, maître in 1778.
This magnificent, jewel-like secretaire, with its sumptuous use of seventeenth-century Japanese lacquer and beautifully chased mounts, is a masterpiece of French cabinetry and is the perfect synthesis between Adam Weisweiler, a supremely talented ébéniste at the height of his powers, and one of the era’s most creative and influential marchands-merciers, Dominique Daguerre.
THE DESIGN
The form and ornament of this secretaire is one of the most sophisticated interpretations of the many elements seen in Weisweiler’s commissions for Daguerre towards the end of the ancien régime. Daguerre had an enormous stock of luxurious materials including 17th century Japanese lacquer, Florentine hardstone panels and rare porcelains. His designs, which would break up and combine these materials in a seemingly endless variety of ways, created a luxurious and instantly desirable new aesthetic. However, it was Daguerre’s extensive network of highly skilled bronziers and ébénistes that turned his designs into a finished product. The beautifully interlaced stretcher is typical of Weisweiler's oeuvre, while the complex series of turned elements of the uprights flanking the fall-front recur with variations (some partly in ebony, some incorporating caryatids) on several secretaires signed by him, for instance an example with pietra dura plaques sold in these rooms from the collection of Dalva Brothers, 22 October 2020, lot 65 ($1,134,000).
THE MOUNTS
This secretaire achieves the perfect balance between sobriety and luxury. The deceptively simple form is offset by the judicious use of luxurious Japanese lacquer panels and restrained, beautifully chased ormolu mounts, almost certainly by the bronzier François Rémond. Although he worked independently with some of the leading Parisian ébénistes, Rémond had an extensive relationship with Daguerre and was his principal supplier; he is recorded to have supplied work valued at the staggering sum of 920,000 livres between 1778 and 1792. The distinctive palmettes of the frieze, rarely seen in pieces by Weisweiler, are typical of Rémond's oeuvre, while the striking ribboned mount framing the fall-front and side panels, in combination with the fluted moulding of the base features on other secretaires by Weisweiler, for instance on a spectacular example with Sèvres and Wedgwood plaques, recorded in a Revolutionary inventory at Versailles and now in the Kress Collection of theMetropolitan Museum, New York (illustrated Lemonnier op. cit., p. 65).
THE MEDALLION
When published by Patrice Lemonnier in her groundbreaking monograph on Weisweiler, it was suggested that the spectacular relief-cast medallion in the fall-front, depicting Minerva educating children, was possibly a later addition. However, a close examination of the bronzes of this secretaire has shown that the chasing is extremely close to the fine chasing of the frieze medallion, leading to the conclusion that it is contemporary to the other mounts, albeit with slightly different gilding suggesting it may have been a change of heart within the workshop, perhaps as a result of a specific request from a client. This conclusion is substantiated by the fact that it is recorded as early as 1822 with its plaque in a sale of the stock of the dealer Daval, where it is described as:
"n°271. Un petit secrétaire à abattant, orné de panneaux en laque et décorés de moulures et autres ornements en bronze doré. Le panneau du milieu offre un riche médaillon de bronze doré, sujet de Marie-Antoinette sous la figure de Minerve, et présidant à l'éducation de ses enfants. L'intérieur d'un travail très soigné, est garni en bois de citron".
It is fascinating to note that the cataloguer thought that Minerva was actually Marie-Antoinette in the guise of the goddess, such was the passion for the ancien régime following the restoration of the monarchy in France.
WEISWEILER AND DAGUERRE
Born in Neuwied, Weisweiler is believed to have studied with David Roentgen (1743-1807) before emigrating to Paris, where he was established as an artisan libre – a foreign worker protected by the medieval right of refuge – by 1777, the year of his marriage. The following year he became a maître-ébéniste, and established his workshop on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, joining Reisener and the elite group of German artisans providing pieces for the French royal family. While he is recorded to have worked with the marchand-mercier Julliot, the luxury pieces for which he is best known were almost exclusively sold directly through Dominique Daguerre. He provided the designs for many of Weisweiler’s most important commissions and together they supplied the most influential and esteemed patrons of their day: Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, George, Prince of Wales (later King George IV), and Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna and Grand Duke Paul of Russia.
The heir to Simon-Philippe Poirier's atelier, Daguerre was the foremost Parisian marchand-mercier of the last decades of the ancien régime. From the 1770s onward, he was the prevailing tastemaker in Paris and subsequently London where he opened a second atelier in 1778 to meet the demands of his growing clientele. He specialized in supplying objets de luxe to the French court and, increasingly during the 1780s, to the English and foreign nobility. He supplied the furniture to George, Prince of Wales for Carlton House as well as Brighton Pavilion. In 1787 alone, Daguerre’s bill to the Prince of Wales was a staggering £14,565 13s 6d. Daguerre also worked for the Prince’s circle and provided furniture to Duke of Bedford for Woburn Abbey and Earl Spencer for Althorp. By 1791, financial constraints and current events necessitated the sale of his stock at Christie’s which was enough to fill an entire catalogue.
BARON ALPHONSE DE ROTHSCHILD
The secretaire was recorded in 1905 in the fabled collection of Baron Alphonse de Rothschild in the Hôtel de Saint-Florentin. The principal Parisian residence of the second generation of French Rothschilds, the Hôtel de Saint-Florentin (also known as the Hôtel de Talleyrand), was refurbished and expanded by Alphonse de Rothschild (1827-1905), the eldest son and heir of James de Rothschild. Adjacent to the Hôtel de la Marine and facing the Place de la Concorde, the building designed by Jean-François Chalgrin in 1769 was bought by James de Rothschild in 1838 but first occupied by Alphonse and his wife (and English cousin) Leonora in 1867 as James and Betty continued to live at their house at 19 rue Laffitte. Alphonse and Leonora filled the house with their superb collections of paintings, maiolica, enamels, furniture, sculpture and works of art. Whereas the collection of the celebrated château de Ferrieres was mainly conceived by James as an expression of his family’s European essence, the hôtel Saint-Florentin projected Alphonse’s particular taste for French eighteenth-century decorative arts, including boiseries from Madame du Barry’s château de Louveciennes and sculptures from the château de Ménars of Madame de Pompadour. Influenced by the taste of the Ancien Régime in line with his political views, the hôtel contained an important collection of Sèvres porcelain, exquisite eighteenth-century furniture and the choicest paintings by the great French masters of the eighteenth century such as Watteau, Fragonard and Greuze.
This magnificent, jewel-like secretaire, with its sumptuous use of seventeenth-century Japanese lacquer and beautifully chased mounts, is a masterpiece of French cabinetry and is the perfect synthesis between Adam Weisweiler, a supremely talented ébéniste at the height of his powers, and one of the era’s most creative and influential marchands-merciers, Dominique Daguerre.
THE DESIGN
The form and ornament of this secretaire is one of the most sophisticated interpretations of the many elements seen in Weisweiler’s commissions for Daguerre towards the end of the ancien régime. Daguerre had an enormous stock of luxurious materials including 17th century Japanese lacquer, Florentine hardstone panels and rare porcelains. His designs, which would break up and combine these materials in a seemingly endless variety of ways, created a luxurious and instantly desirable new aesthetic. However, it was Daguerre’s extensive network of highly skilled bronziers and ébénistes that turned his designs into a finished product. The beautifully interlaced stretcher is typical of Weisweiler's oeuvre, while the complex series of turned elements of the uprights flanking the fall-front recur with variations (some partly in ebony, some incorporating caryatids) on several secretaires signed by him, for instance an example with pietra dura plaques sold in these rooms from the collection of Dalva Brothers, 22 October 2020, lot 65 ($1,134,000).
THE MOUNTS
This secretaire achieves the perfect balance between sobriety and luxury. The deceptively simple form is offset by the judicious use of luxurious Japanese lacquer panels and restrained, beautifully chased ormolu mounts, almost certainly by the bronzier François Rémond. Although he worked independently with some of the leading Parisian ébénistes, Rémond had an extensive relationship with Daguerre and was his principal supplier; he is recorded to have supplied work valued at the staggering sum of 920,000 livres between 1778 and 1792. The distinctive palmettes of the frieze, rarely seen in pieces by Weisweiler, are typical of Rémond's oeuvre, while the striking ribboned mount framing the fall-front and side panels, in combination with the fluted moulding of the base features on other secretaires by Weisweiler, for instance on a spectacular example with Sèvres and Wedgwood plaques, recorded in a Revolutionary inventory at Versailles and now in the Kress Collection of theMetropolitan Museum, New York (illustrated Lemonnier op. cit., p. 65).
THE MEDALLION
When published by Patrice Lemonnier in her groundbreaking monograph on Weisweiler, it was suggested that the spectacular relief-cast medallion in the fall-front, depicting Minerva educating children, was possibly a later addition. However, a close examination of the bronzes of this secretaire has shown that the chasing is extremely close to the fine chasing of the frieze medallion, leading to the conclusion that it is contemporary to the other mounts, albeit with slightly different gilding suggesting it may have been a change of heart within the workshop, perhaps as a result of a specific request from a client. This conclusion is substantiated by the fact that it is recorded as early as 1822 with its plaque in a sale of the stock of the dealer Daval, where it is described as:
"n°271. Un petit secrétaire à abattant, orné de panneaux en laque et décorés de moulures et autres ornements en bronze doré. Le panneau du milieu offre un riche médaillon de bronze doré, sujet de Marie-Antoinette sous la figure de Minerve, et présidant à l'éducation de ses enfants. L'intérieur d'un travail très soigné, est garni en bois de citron".
It is fascinating to note that the cataloguer thought that Minerva was actually Marie-Antoinette in the guise of the goddess, such was the passion for the ancien régime following the restoration of the monarchy in France.
WEISWEILER AND DAGUERRE
Born in Neuwied, Weisweiler is believed to have studied with David Roentgen (1743-1807) before emigrating to Paris, where he was established as an artisan libre – a foreign worker protected by the medieval right of refuge – by 1777, the year of his marriage. The following year he became a maître-ébéniste, and established his workshop on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, joining Reisener and the elite group of German artisans providing pieces for the French royal family. While he is recorded to have worked with the marchand-mercier Julliot, the luxury pieces for which he is best known were almost exclusively sold directly through Dominique Daguerre. He provided the designs for many of Weisweiler’s most important commissions and together they supplied the most influential and esteemed patrons of their day: Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, George, Prince of Wales (later King George IV), and Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna and Grand Duke Paul of Russia.
The heir to Simon-Philippe Poirier's atelier, Daguerre was the foremost Parisian marchand-mercier of the last decades of the ancien régime. From the 1770s onward, he was the prevailing tastemaker in Paris and subsequently London where he opened a second atelier in 1778 to meet the demands of his growing clientele. He specialized in supplying objets de luxe to the French court and, increasingly during the 1780s, to the English and foreign nobility. He supplied the furniture to George, Prince of Wales for Carlton House as well as Brighton Pavilion. In 1787 alone, Daguerre’s bill to the Prince of Wales was a staggering £14,565 13s 6d. Daguerre also worked for the Prince’s circle and provided furniture to Duke of Bedford for Woburn Abbey and Earl Spencer for Althorp. By 1791, financial constraints and current events necessitated the sale of his stock at Christie’s which was enough to fill an entire catalogue.
BARON ALPHONSE DE ROTHSCHILD
The secretaire was recorded in 1905 in the fabled collection of Baron Alphonse de Rothschild in the Hôtel de Saint-Florentin. The principal Parisian residence of the second generation of French Rothschilds, the Hôtel de Saint-Florentin (also known as the Hôtel de Talleyrand), was refurbished and expanded by Alphonse de Rothschild (1827-1905), the eldest son and heir of James de Rothschild. Adjacent to the Hôtel de la Marine and facing the Place de la Concorde, the building designed by Jean-François Chalgrin in 1769 was bought by James de Rothschild in 1838 but first occupied by Alphonse and his wife (and English cousin) Leonora in 1867 as James and Betty continued to live at their house at 19 rue Laffitte. Alphonse and Leonora filled the house with their superb collections of paintings, maiolica, enamels, furniture, sculpture and works of art. Whereas the collection of the celebrated château de Ferrieres was mainly conceived by James as an expression of his family’s European essence, the hôtel Saint-Florentin projected Alphonse’s particular taste for French eighteenth-century decorative arts, including boiseries from Madame du Barry’s château de Louveciennes and sculptures from the château de Ménars of Madame de Pompadour. Influenced by the taste of the Ancien Régime in line with his political views, the hôtel contained an important collection of Sèvres porcelain, exquisite eighteenth-century furniture and the choicest paintings by the great French masters of the eighteenth century such as Watteau, Fragonard and Greuze.