LOUIS XVI STYLE A tall pair of gilt-bronze mounted rouge griotte de Campan jardinière en Athénienne, France, last quarter 19th century

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Description

LOUIS XVI STYLE
gilt-bronze mounted rouge griotte de Campan jardinière
height 59 in.; width 22 in.
150 cm; 56 cm

each supports headed by a female mask joined by floral garlands

Literature

S. Eriksen, Early Neo-classicism in France,1974, pp. 138, 343, pl.186 and pl. 370 for an engraving by J.J. Flipart after a painting by J.M. Vien, for a variant

Joseph-Marie Vien, La Vertueuse Athénienne, 1762. "Représente l'Hiver personnifié par une prêtresse qui brûle de l'encens sur un trépied". Musée des beaux-arts de Strasbourg, for a variante

Catalogue Note

The design of the present pair of jardinières is inspired by the Classical incense burner which had a tripod stand and commonly known as Athénienne.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art currently houses an Athénienne, gifted by Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 1993. Sir F.J.B Watson, a past director of the Wallace Collection, London from 1963 to 1974 and Surveyor of the Queen's Works of Art from 1963 to1972, compares the Wrightsman Athénienne to a similar example in a painting of the Duc de Chartres and his family by Charles LePeintre (1736-circa 1803). The Duc de Chartres was Louis Philippe Joseph d' Orléans (13 April 1747 – 6 November 1793), commonly known as Philippe Égalité, and was the father of King Louis-Philippe I.

The revival of the Athénienne in the decorative art was put back in fashion in around 1773 by J.-H. Eberts, banker and editor of the Monument du Costume. See an original engraving that appeared in an advertisement in L'Avantcoureur in September 27, 1773 (Eriksen, op cit., p. 403, pl. 484), and now preserved in the library of the university of Warsaw, Poland. Eberts describes his new form of furniture in the accompanying caption as "Nouveau Meuble/Servant/de console/de casolette/de pot de Fleurs/de Terrasee/de reservoir". It is very possible that Eberts drew inspiration from a painting he owned by J. M Vien, which depicts an Athénienne of same design as that in the present lot. See Joseph-Marie Vien, La Vertueuse Athénienne, 1762. "Représente l'Hiver personnifié par une prêtresse qui brûle de l'encens sur un trépied". Musée des beaux-arts de Strasbourg.