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Lot Essay
THE TASTE FOR BOULLE
These superb cabinets reflect the renewed taste for Boulle furniture among fashionable English collectors such as George, Prince of Wales, the Earl of Pembroke and the Duke of Wellington in the late 18th and early 19th century. The type and format of these meubles d'appui ('à hauteur d'appui'), their tripartite composition, as well as the use of bronze casts from Boulle's workshop (in this case, allegories of the Seasons), combined with neoclassical elements, are all typical of the neoclassical Boulle revival production of the marchand Claude-François Julliot (1727-94) and his son Philippe-François (1755-1835), in whose sale they appeared in 1802.
From the 1750s on, Boulle furniture was being sought after avidly by collectors to be used and displayed in a masculine context in studies, libraries and picture galleries. This new taste was illustrated in the rooms of celebrated and fashionable collectors such as Blondel de Gagny, Radix de Sainte-Foix, and Grimod de la Reynière, among others. A passage from a letter from the marquis de Marigny, Mme. de Pompadour's brother, to his ébéniste, Pierre Garnier concerning the choice of furniture for his library is very revealing of the preference for ebony:
'Vous conviendrez avec moi que les meubles en ébéne et bronze sont beaucoup plus nobles que les meubles en acajou.'
The need for wall space for hanging the now fashionable collections of Dutch and Flemish paintings - with small formats - meant that Boulle furniture then in demand was expected to be lower than the models favoured in the time of Louis XIV. Therefore, some pieces including the series of cabinets-on-stands were turned into low cabinets. Obviously, the series of low bookcases with three doors produced by Boulle's workshop were most adapted to the new trends in interior decoration. Accordingly, they were much in favour, as can be demonstrated by their repeated sales at high prices in the 1750s by Lazare Duvaux to such clients as Voyer d'Argenson, the comte du Luc and Grimod de la Reynière, and by their presence in one of the most interesting collections of that time, that of Blondel de Gagny in the place Vendôme. Early models being scarce and the demand for them increasing, Paris dealers and restorers specialising in Boulle furniture started from the early 1760s to produce pastiches. The main dealer responsible for this Boulle revival movement was Philippe-Claude Julliot, while the cabinet-makers entrusted with these creations were the same ones who were restoring the older pieces: Delorme, Montigny, Levasseur, Joseph Baumhauer and Weisweiler.
THE DESIGN
These neoclassical Boulle cabinets reuse old elements from larger armoires and cabinets such as marquetry panels, bronze motifs or, as on these cabinets, drawer fronts, in a tripartite division derived from Boulle’s original models. Whilst on Boulle's pieces, that tripartite division took the form of an opposition between a rich central marquetry panel flanked by two plainer (generally glazed) doors, it took alternative shapes on the new models: either a central marquetry panel flanked by two glazed or ebony doors; or a central plain door with a strong bronze element (figure or mask), flanked by two marquetry doors.
The figures of the Seasons on these meubles d'appui are cast from models first used by Boulle for a set of bas d'armoires with two doors, a pair of which, seized during the Revolution from the Noailles family, is now at Versailles (see J.N. Ronfort et al., André-Charles Boulle: Un Nouveau Style pour Europe, exh. cat., Paris, 2009, pp. 248-250, cat. 25 a and b). This set was designed and engraved by Boulle for his album published by Mariette (Nouveaux Deisseins de meubles et ouvrages de bronze et marqueterie inventés et gravés par André-Charles Boulle). The same figures of the Seasons feature on other pieces by Boulle, for instance an armoire in the Wallace Collection (F62) and a bibliothèque basse in a private collection (illustrated in A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes Français de Louis XIV à la Révolution, Paris, 1989, p. 73, fig. 19). The mounts of the seasons feature on a group of cabinets from the Louis XVI period, many with ebony panels bordered with pewter bands and distinctive fan-shaped floral motifs at the corner, several signed by or attributed to Weisweiler and associated with the marchand Julliot, including a pair of cabinets in the Wallace collection (F 393-394), stamped Weisweiler; and a pair of cabinets from the Wormser collection (sold Christie's New York, 14 November 1985, lot 194A).
Other cabinets featuring figures of the seasons, also derived from models by Boulle but of a variant design, the figures perched on brackets, include:
- a pair of meubles d'appui with three doors from Schloss Schillersdorf, (sold Christie's New York, 27 May 1999, lot 250, $409,500)
- a pair of meubles d'appui, the only other examples along with the Brynkinalt pair to feature three drawers in the center flanked by doors, sold from the Wildenstein Collection; Christie’s, London, 14 December 2005, lot 25 (£680,000, illustrated here).
THE PROVENANCE
These cabinets, with their distinctive arrangement of marquetry drawers to the center, probably taken from a Louis XIV bureau mazarin, are almost certainly those offered as lot 35 offered in the sale of Philippe-François Julliot's stock in 1802, where they were described as :-
'Deux bas d'armoires de marqueterie, genre de Boule, sans marbre, les cuivres dorés, les panneaux du milieu figurant des tiroirs non placés.'
Several pieces, like the Brynkinalt pair, remained unfinished at the time of the sale, either without their bronzes gilded or without marbles, while a significant amount of the sale consisted of Boulle pieces, demonstrating the enduring popularity of this style to both French and English collectors in the early 19th century
These meubles d’appui were almost certainly acquired, along with other fine examples of 18th century ébènisterie, by Arthur Hill-Trevor, 2nd Viscount Dungannon (1763 - 1837) of Brynkinalt, North Wales. By family tradition, this group of furniture came to Brynkinalt as a gift from the Duke of Wellington, Lord Dungannon's near contemporary and first cousin. The links between the cousins were longstanding, since, following the death of the Duke's father Lord Mornington in 1781, the widowed and impoverished Lady Mornington spent much time with her mother and sister-in-law in Wales, taking her son, the future Duke, with her (E. Longford, Wellington: The Years of the Sword, London, 1969, p. 15).
The furniture sold at Christie's from Brynkinalt in 1983 included other notable examples of Boulle furniture, offering a clear parallel with the Duke of Wellington's well-documented predilection for Boulle (F.J.B. Watson, 'The Great Duke's taste for French Furniture', Apollo, July 1975, pp. 44 - 9). However, it is also fascinating to note that one of these examples, a pair of Boulle pedestals, was sold at the celebrated sale of the Duke of York's collection at Christie's in 1827, and purchased by Edward Holmes Baldock, indicating that Lord Dungannon acquired them from this well-known dealer, whose clients included many of the great collectors of the period, including the Duke of Buccleuch and the Earl of Pembroke.
These superb cabinets reflect the renewed taste for Boulle furniture among fashionable English collectors such as George, Prince of Wales, the Earl of Pembroke and the Duke of Wellington in the late 18th and early 19th century. The type and format of these meubles d'appui ('à hauteur d'appui'), their tripartite composition, as well as the use of bronze casts from Boulle's workshop (in this case, allegories of the Seasons), combined with neoclassical elements, are all typical of the neoclassical Boulle revival production of the marchand Claude-François Julliot (1727-94) and his son Philippe-François (1755-1835), in whose sale they appeared in 1802.
From the 1750s on, Boulle furniture was being sought after avidly by collectors to be used and displayed in a masculine context in studies, libraries and picture galleries. This new taste was illustrated in the rooms of celebrated and fashionable collectors such as Blondel de Gagny, Radix de Sainte-Foix, and Grimod de la Reynière, among others. A passage from a letter from the marquis de Marigny, Mme. de Pompadour's brother, to his ébéniste, Pierre Garnier concerning the choice of furniture for his library is very revealing of the preference for ebony:
'Vous conviendrez avec moi que les meubles en ébéne et bronze sont beaucoup plus nobles que les meubles en acajou.'
The need for wall space for hanging the now fashionable collections of Dutch and Flemish paintings - with small formats - meant that Boulle furniture then in demand was expected to be lower than the models favoured in the time of Louis XIV. Therefore, some pieces including the series of cabinets-on-stands were turned into low cabinets. Obviously, the series of low bookcases with three doors produced by Boulle's workshop were most adapted to the new trends in interior decoration. Accordingly, they were much in favour, as can be demonstrated by their repeated sales at high prices in the 1750s by Lazare Duvaux to such clients as Voyer d'Argenson, the comte du Luc and Grimod de la Reynière, and by their presence in one of the most interesting collections of that time, that of Blondel de Gagny in the place Vendôme. Early models being scarce and the demand for them increasing, Paris dealers and restorers specialising in Boulle furniture started from the early 1760s to produce pastiches. The main dealer responsible for this Boulle revival movement was Philippe-Claude Julliot, while the cabinet-makers entrusted with these creations were the same ones who were restoring the older pieces: Delorme, Montigny, Levasseur, Joseph Baumhauer and Weisweiler.
THE DESIGN
These neoclassical Boulle cabinets reuse old elements from larger armoires and cabinets such as marquetry panels, bronze motifs or, as on these cabinets, drawer fronts, in a tripartite division derived from Boulle’s original models. Whilst on Boulle's pieces, that tripartite division took the form of an opposition between a rich central marquetry panel flanked by two plainer (generally glazed) doors, it took alternative shapes on the new models: either a central marquetry panel flanked by two glazed or ebony doors; or a central plain door with a strong bronze element (figure or mask), flanked by two marquetry doors.
The figures of the Seasons on these meubles d'appui are cast from models first used by Boulle for a set of bas d'armoires with two doors, a pair of which, seized during the Revolution from the Noailles family, is now at Versailles (see J.N. Ronfort et al., André-Charles Boulle: Un Nouveau Style pour Europe, exh. cat., Paris, 2009, pp. 248-250, cat. 25 a and b). This set was designed and engraved by Boulle for his album published by Mariette (Nouveaux Deisseins de meubles et ouvrages de bronze et marqueterie inventés et gravés par André-Charles Boulle). The same figures of the Seasons feature on other pieces by Boulle, for instance an armoire in the Wallace Collection (F62) and a bibliothèque basse in a private collection (illustrated in A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes Français de Louis XIV à la Révolution, Paris, 1989, p. 73, fig. 19). The mounts of the seasons feature on a group of cabinets from the Louis XVI period, many with ebony panels bordered with pewter bands and distinctive fan-shaped floral motifs at the corner, several signed by or attributed to Weisweiler and associated with the marchand Julliot, including a pair of cabinets in the Wallace collection (F 393-394), stamped Weisweiler; and a pair of cabinets from the Wormser collection (sold Christie's New York, 14 November 1985, lot 194A).
Other cabinets featuring figures of the seasons, also derived from models by Boulle but of a variant design, the figures perched on brackets, include:
- a pair of meubles d'appui with three doors from Schloss Schillersdorf, (sold Christie's New York, 27 May 1999, lot 250, $409,500)
- a pair of meubles d'appui, the only other examples along with the Brynkinalt pair to feature three drawers in the center flanked by doors, sold from the Wildenstein Collection; Christie’s, London, 14 December 2005, lot 25 (£680,000, illustrated here).
THE PROVENANCE
These cabinets, with their distinctive arrangement of marquetry drawers to the center, probably taken from a Louis XIV bureau mazarin, are almost certainly those offered as lot 35 offered in the sale of Philippe-François Julliot's stock in 1802, where they were described as :-
'Deux bas d'armoires de marqueterie, genre de Boule, sans marbre, les cuivres dorés, les panneaux du milieu figurant des tiroirs non placés.'
Several pieces, like the Brynkinalt pair, remained unfinished at the time of the sale, either without their bronzes gilded or without marbles, while a significant amount of the sale consisted of Boulle pieces, demonstrating the enduring popularity of this style to both French and English collectors in the early 19th century
These meubles d’appui were almost certainly acquired, along with other fine examples of 18th century ébènisterie, by Arthur Hill-Trevor, 2nd Viscount Dungannon (1763 - 1837) of Brynkinalt, North Wales. By family tradition, this group of furniture came to Brynkinalt as a gift from the Duke of Wellington, Lord Dungannon's near contemporary and first cousin. The links between the cousins were longstanding, since, following the death of the Duke's father Lord Mornington in 1781, the widowed and impoverished Lady Mornington spent much time with her mother and sister-in-law in Wales, taking her son, the future Duke, with her (E. Longford, Wellington: The Years of the Sword, London, 1969, p. 15).
The furniture sold at Christie's from Brynkinalt in 1983 included other notable examples of Boulle furniture, offering a clear parallel with the Duke of Wellington's well-documented predilection for Boulle (F.J.B. Watson, 'The Great Duke's taste for French Furniture', Apollo, July 1975, pp. 44 - 9). However, it is also fascinating to note that one of these examples, a pair of Boulle pedestals, was sold at the celebrated sale of the Duke of York's collection at Christie's in 1827, and purchased by Edward Holmes Baldock, indicating that Lord Dungannon acquired them from this well-known dealer, whose clients included many of the great collectors of the period, including the Duke of Buccleuch and the Earl of Pembroke.