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A pair of gilt-bronze-mounted Chinese export porcelain cockerel candelabra, the porcelain Qianlong (1736-1795), the mounts Louis XV, with the crown c poinçon, circa 1745-49, attributed to Jacques Caffiéri (1678-1755), almost certainly acquired by Madame de Pompadour from Lazare–Duvaux on 4th August 1755 for l’Hôtel d’Évreux in Paris
Description
- gilt-bronze, porcelain
- each 63cm. high; 2ft. 1in.
Provenance
The Viscounts Astor, Cliveden House, Buckinghamshire.
Private American Collector.
Sotheby’s, Parke Bernet & Co., London, 6th July 1979, lot 162.
Private European Collection.
Literature
Une paire de girandoles à trois branches à feuillage, garnies de fleurs & terraffes dorées fur des coqs blancs, 360l.’ see fig. 2.
Jean Cordey, Inventaire des biens de Madame de Pompadour rédigé après son décès, Paris, 1939, 5th July 1764:
No. 415.-Une garniture de cinq pièces de porcelaine blanche, une paire de girandolles à trois branches, sur des coqs blancs. Le tout prisé quatre vingt sieze livres.’ see fig. 3.
Condition
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
Daniel Alcouffe, Anne Dion Tenenbaum, Gérard Mabille, Gilt bronzes in the Louvre, Dijon, 2004.
Christian Baulez, Versailles deux siècles d’histoire de l’art, RMN/Franck Raux, 2007, p.184.
Isabelle de Conihout and Christian Péligry`Trésors méconnus, Bibliothèque Mazarine’, L’Estampille/L'Objet d'Art, no. 334, March 1999, p. 36.
Pierre Kjellberg, Objets montés du Moyen Age à nos jours, Paris, 2000, p. 94.
Pierre Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Français du XVIIIe siècle, Picard, 1987, p. 288, no. 234.
These spectacular and large scale candelabra can almost certainly be identified in the delivery book of the marchand-mercier Lazare-Duvaux, as the pair acquired by Madame de Pompadour on 4th August 1755 for her Parisian residence, the hôtel d’Évreux:
no. 2210 Du. 4- Mme la Marq. De Pompadour: Poffé dans l’entrefol de l’hoftel à Paris:
Une paire de girandoles à trois branches à feuillage, garnies de fleurs & terraffes dorées fur des coqs blancs, 360l.’
In particular, the gilt-bronze terraced base, a unique, prominent and boldly cast feature of the present pair, cannot be found on any of the other known pair of gilt-bronze candelabra mounted with Chinese porcelain cockerels. This feature which is deemed worthy of specific mention by Duvaux, rather than the porcelain, together with the superlative quality of execution and design of the luxuriant gilt-bronzes certainly by the hands of one of the most skillful bronziers, such as the celebrated Jacques Caffiéri, reinforce this iconic provenance, even more so, once one places these exquisite chef d’oeuvres in the context of the two chandeliers attributed to Caffiéri made for the marquise for her bedroom and the Grand Cabinet of Madame de Pompadour's residence the hôtel d’Évreux. They are also recorded in the inventory after her death on 5th July 1764.
This pair are a magnificent representation of the inventiveness of the Parisian marchand-merciers in the 18th century in combining luxury goods from the Orient, especially Chinese and Japanese porcelain with the finest quality gilt-bronze mounts executed by the leading Parisian bronziers of the era. The white colour of this pair of cockerels with red painted details make them an extremely rare model as most examples of these cockerels were with a polychrome ground and the quality of the gilt-bronze mounts is what one would expect from the renowned Parisian bronziers Jacques Caffiéri (sculpteur et ciseleur ordinaires du roi).
Collectors and connoisseurs were passionate about objects which incorporated exotic porcelain animals and birds, which were extremely popular, whereas the most coveted objects appeared to be cockerels or birds of prey. Birds were amongst the most popular of the Chinese export production especially during the Qing dynasty. Parrots were more common as were pheasants and the white colour of the offered pair of cockerels are amongst the rarest models. A pair of similar white porcelain Chinese Qianlong cockerels can be found in the Chinese Pavilion in the Royal Palace of Drottningholm in Sweden and a single one is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. 65.155.64.).
The Madame de Pompadour Provenance:
In the Livre-Journal of Lazare Duvaux (published by Louis Courajod, Paris, 1965) on 4th August 1755, under no. 2210, there is recorded for Madame de Pompadour,`une paire de girandoles à trois branches à feuillage, garnies de fleurs & terrasses dorées, sur des coqs blancs, 360 l’.
The girandoles were described in the inventory after the death of Madame de Pompadour on 5th July 1764, in one of the rooms on the 1st floor of the l’hôtel d’Evreux `à costé de la Bibliotèque’:`une paire de girandolles à trois branches, sur des coqs blancs’. They were probably sold at the instigation of the marquis de Marigny, the brother of the marquise and her sole heir, who organised the sale over eight months of her household and decorative objects at the Hôtel de l’Éysée, Paris due to the necessity of paying out the various annuities and bequests under her will, which took place in several separate sessions from 19th November 1764 to the 26th July 1765. There were no printed catalogues for these sales.
The gilt-bronze attributed to Jacques Caffiéri (1678-1755):
The closest comparable gilt-bronze object in terms of the superlative quality of its execution and very similar elements is the gilt-bronze chandelier, one of two, with nine lights attributed to Caffiéri and executed around 1750 for Madame de Pompadour, cast with cherubs holding a tower with the arms of the marquise, illustrated by Verlet, op. cit., p. 94, reproduced here in fig. 4. The chandeliers were described in the inventory after her death, one of which was in her bedroom, the other in le Grand cabinet of l’hôtel d’Évreux, the future palais de l’Elysée, and are now in the bibliothèque Mazarine in Paris, after having been confiscated during the Revolution.
In particular, the outstanding virtuosity of the luxuriant asymmetrical acanthus leaf volutes which can be seen on the candelbranches of the chandelier are closely comparable to those on the offered pair reproduced here in fig. 5.
The candle-nozzles and bobèches encircled by leaves are an integral part of the candelarms continuous decoration so characteristic of the most accomplished oeuvres of Caffiéri. It is also worthwhile noting that the candelarms and the bobèches are cast in one continuous section reproduced here in fig. 6. The same sprays of flower buds enhancing the acanthus volutes of the mounts are also repeated on the offered candelabra reproduced here in fig. 7. Furthermore, the branches perfectly fit the porcelain of this pair of candelabra as the cockerels are not identical, as they precisely follow the shape of the heads and bodies. In addition the gilt-bronze rockwork bases cast with leaves perfectly encircle and contain the porcelain bases and this rockwork cast with leaves can also be seen beneath the putti on the chandeliers of the marquise. According to Gérard Mabille, op. cit., p. 50, when writing about the Louis XV style states,`Finally, it should not be forgotten how well the marchands merciers succeeded in exploiting the beauty of gilt bronze associating it with Oriental products such as lacquer or porcelain’.
The crown C was a hallmark used from March 1745 to February 1749 on any alloy utilising the metal copper.
Other related Chinese porcelain cockerel mounted candelabra:
After exhaustive research in the inventories and the sale catalogues of the 18th century it would appear to be the case that candelabra mounted with Chinese porcelain cockerels in white or polychrome porcelain described as `girandolles’ under the Ancien Regime were a great rarity.
Those that possessed this model of cockerel candelabra of imposing scale with the most exceptional mounts were amongst the greatest amateurs and collectors of their time, and included the S.A.S. Monseigneur le duc d’Orléans (1703-1752), son of the Regent, Jean de Julienne (1686-1766) and his son, Jean-Baptiste-François de Monthullé or Monthulé (1721-1787), Queen Marie Leszczynska, Blondel d’Azincourt, son of Blondel de Gagny, the marquise d’Albert and Salomon Pierre Prousteau de Monlouis, captain of the Gardes de la Ville, Paris.
Furthermore, it is interesting to note that Madame de Pompadour’s chamber à coucher at Versailles, has a replacement pair of three-light Chinese polychrome porcelain gilt-bronze candelabra conceived in a similar vein, (Windsor legacy), illustrated by Baulez, op. cit., p. 184, reproduced here in fig. 8.
Birds were popular objects to mount in the 18th century including herons and Madame de Pompadour purchased from Lazare-Duvaux on 14th February 1752,`une paire de girandoles à trois branches, ciselées et dorées d’or moulu, sur des cigognes de porcelain, 1320 l’ (sold Sotheby’s, Monaco, 11th December 1999, lot 88, 2,600,000FF). The sophisticated mounts and the large size of the porcelain herons would possibly explain the high price.
It is worthwhile considering a pair of white Chinese porcelain cockerel three-light candelabra sold Sotheby’s, Paris, 16th October 2007, lot 13, which are close to the pair sold by Lazare–Duvaux to Blondel d’Azincourt for 192 livres.
Madame de Pompadour (1721-64):
Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, the Marquise de Pompadour was born in 1721 into a bourgeois family and received an extensive cultural education. She married Guillaume Le Normant d’Etiolles, when she was twenty and as the wife of a farmer-general was then in a position to be admitted to Louis XV’s court and became the king’s official mistress in 1745 and she was granted a new title to appear at court and that was how she became the Marquise de Pompadour. She received an annual pension which enabled her to buy several properties, including various châteaux and a magnificent townhouse, the Hôtel d’Evreux, now the Elysée Palace and decorated the interiors in lavish style and was a great patroness of the arts. From 1751, she was no longer the king’s mistress, but remained an adviser and friend.
The Hôtel d'Évreux:
Louis Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Count of Évreux (1679–1753) was a French nobleman and member of the House of La Tour d'Auvergne. Given the title comte d'Évreux at birth, he later became a lieutenant of the King's armies. Louis Henri was responsible for the construction of the Hôtel d'Évreux in Paris. He bought the site in 1718 from Armand-Claude Mollet who possessed a property fronting on the road to the village of Roule, west of Paris see fig. 9. A hôtel particulier was built for the count, which was finished and decorated by 1722. At the time of his death in 1753, Évreux was the owner of one of the most universally admired houses in Paris which was bought by King Louis XV as a residence for his mistress the Marquise de Pompadour and after her death, it reverted to the crown.
Cliveden and the Astors:
When the American millionaire William Waldorf Astor (1848-1919) acquired Cliveden in 1893, reproduced here in figs. 10 & 11, he began another illustrious chapter in the history of a building which had undergone frequent re-modelling. Built for the 2nd Duke of Buckingham (d.1687)-Charles II's chief minister of state-between 1676 and 1678, the first building was designed by William Winde along the lines of an Italian villa supported on an arcaded terrace which, in part, still survives. After Buckingham's death, George Hamilton, Earl of Orkney (d.1737) acquired the house and, in the first decade of the 18th century, commissioned the two wings linked by colonnades, probably from Thomas Archer. Cliveden descended through the same family for the remainder of the 18th century, although the house was let by the daughter and heir of the 1st Earl, Anne, Countess of Orkney, to Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales (d.1751) for use as an informal retreat close to London.
After a disastrous fire in 1795, the house was left in a ruinous state, until sold to Sir George Warrender, 4th Bt (d.1849) who commissioned the Edinburgh architect William Burn to reconstruct the building in an early Georgian style. Warrender's death in 1849 and the acquisition of the house by the 2nd Duke of Sutherland for his wife in the same year, was followed shortly by another fire. Within a year, Sir Charles Barry had began work on the building that, externally at least, survives to this day. It combined a sense of English Palladianism with monumental Roman cinquecento styles and is, as was noted at the time, particularly reminiscent of the Villa Albani. After the Duchess' death in 1868, Cliveden was bought by her son-in-law Hugh Lupus, later 1st Duke of Westminster (d.1899), who embarked on small improvements.
William Waldorf "Willy" Astor, 1st Viscount Astor (1848–1919):
He was heir to a considerable fortune built initially from the music business, then the fur trade, and finally property investments in New York. Along with Carnegie and Rockefeller, he was described by Balla as a 'transatlantic prince of finance': three generations of Astors were successively the richest men in America through the 19th century. William Waldorf Astor was less interested in the family business and entered into American politics in 1877. Five years later, he left for Europe with his wife Mary, to take up his appointment as US Minister in Rome. There he began to collect ancient sculpture, medieval and Renaissance works of arts, armour, illuminated manuscripts and Old Master Pictures, which were soon to decorate the rooms at Cliveden. Returning to America on the election of a Democrat President, he soon travelled with his family to live in England. He rented Lansdowne House in London, entered his sons for Eton, bought the Pall Mall Gazette and, in 1893, acquired Cliveden. Ten years later, he would acquire Hever Castle in Kent. Astor immediatelv set about creating a grand series of rooms for entertaining, using John Loughborough Pearson and his son Frank, to work on the interiors.
The building work of the late 19th and early 20th century is still largely preserved on the ground floor, which illustrates Edwardian opulence at its very apogee, whilst still expressing American tastes as much as European traditions. The Parisian decorating firm of Allard completely remodelled the Dining Room and former Drawing Room, creating a Rococo Dining Room from boiseries designed by Nicholas Pineau for the Château d'Asnieres, and furnishing it in 1890's historicising pieces.
Cliveden passed to his son, Waldorf Astor, on his marriage to Nancy Langhorne Shaw in 1905. Nancy set about re-decorating the house, introducing electricity, removing the Minton tiles and installing Chintz curtains.
Cliveden's greatest epoch at the centre of political and literary society thus began, as, in 1910 Waldorf Astor was elected to Parliament for Plymouth. Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, Balfour, Lord Curzon and Churchill were all regular pre-war guests. His father accepted a barony in 1916 and was elevated to the viscountcy in the following year. Consequently, after his death in 1919, Waldorf Astor, now 2nd Viscount Astor, took his seat in the Lords. The guests and intrigues surrounding Cliveden in the 1930s-from the so-called 'Cliveden Set' to Charlie Chaplin, George Bernard Shaw or members of the Royal family: as Harold Nicholson was to note: ' ... to own it, to live here, would be like living on the stage of the Scala theatre in Milan: During the Second World War, the 3rd Viscount decided to present the house to the National Trust, although the family remained in residence until 1966.
Jacques Caffiéri (1678-1755):
He was a celebrated Parisian fondeur-ciseleur and sculptor of Italian origin who worked for the French Crown and was elected maître fondeur-ciseleur shortly before 1715 and in the constant employment of the French Crown from 1736 onwards and appointed fondeur-ciseleur des Batîments du Roi whilst producing works for Versailles, Fontainebleau, Choisy, Marly and the other royal palaces. There are three signed and dated pieces by him in the exhuberant rococo style: the two monumental chandeliers signed and dated by him in the Wallace Collection, London, a large astronomical clock now at Versailles, Paris, all three signed Caffiéri and the first dated 1751 and all three executed for the Crown, the clock being completed in 1753. A pair of fire dogs in the Cleveland Museum of Art are signed and dated 1752. He also made furniture mounts such as those on the commode made in 1739 for the bedroom of Louis XV at Versailles, now in the Wallace collection, London. He was also assisted by his son Philippe (1714-1774) who also became a fondeur-ciseleur, with much of the latter’s work being in the neoclassical style.