MID-18TH CENTURY

The Savonnerie carpet manufactory was a royal undertaking started under the impetus and protection of Henri IV (r. 1589-1610) and established an unrivalled reputation, akin to its sister factory, the Gobelins tapestry workshops. The enterprise aimed to develop a domestic luxury weaving industry that could supply the Crown with French carpets that would be equal to or even surpass the desirable and expensive imported pile carpets of the Orient. Under the patronage and protection of the Bourbon monarchs and exempt from the usual guild regulations the factory flourished, manufacturing carpets for the floor and to cover furniture almost exclusively for the Court, the Royal Palaces and for diplomatic gifts.

This still-life panel demonstrates a different aspect of the output of the Savonnerie workshops: the production of woven ‘pictures’ and ‘portraits’ intended for framing, which were executed throughout the factory’s existence. Pierre Verlet has suggested that these panels were intended as gifts for important individuals and were probably also produced as chefs-d'oeuvre by apprentice weavers seeking their maîtrise (see P. Verlet, The James A. De Rothschild collection at Waddesdon Manor, The Savonnerie, Its History, The Waddesdon Collection, London, 1982). This may also account for the fact that these products do not appear in the official records of the factory as is the case for the Gobelins factory records (see M. Fenaille, État général des tapisseries de la manufacture des Gobelins depuis son origine jusqu'à nos jours, 1600-1900, Paris, 1907). Savonnerie pictures and portraits were nevertheless greatly admired: a tapestry panel of a dog was described by a contemporary as being crafted with ‘finesse et de perfection’, with the dog’s hair so skilfully crafted that it could be mistaken for a painting (Verlet, op. cit., p. 311). Related still-life panels can be found in the Musée Nissim de Camondo, executed after a still-life by Anne-Vallayer Coster, reputedly having once belonged to the Marquis de Marigny, one of the most important patrons of the factory (ibid, p. 318).

Alongside her contemporaries, Anne-Vallayer Coster often depicted her floral arrangements in vases on the edge of marble-top tables. A panel of a similar composition to the present example was acquired by the Louvre, Paris, in 1963, having previously been in the James A. de Rothschild collection at Waddesdon Manor and in the collection of Jean Bloch (ibid, p. 66). It is signed VL.GL.F and was “probably woven by members of the Lourdet family, c. 1680. There is a comparable painted composition also in the Louvre titled Vase de fleurs en or, posé sur une table de marbre by Jacques II Bailly (1700-1768).

Other related panels housed in notable collections include an example with a similar vase in the Royal Castle of Frederiksborg, Denmark, mounted as a fire-screen and signed ‘G.F.’ (ibid, p. 312). Another is preserved in the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Vienna (ibid, p. 311). Two additional examples of Savonnerie still-life panels can be found in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession numbers 35.116.1 and 35.116.2, accessible online via The Met Collection search).

For a further example of a Savonnerie still-life panel in this sale, please see lot 35.