A large enamelled silver scent flask, Eugène Feuillâtre, Paris, circa 1900

in the form of a peacock, the cap as its head and crest in blue enamel and silver, the body with shimmering blue and green plumage on a guilloché silver ground, glass stopper, maker’s mark and French control mark on rim and cap, underside plate stamped ‘Feuillâtre’ ’ 

The Lotar and Vera Neumann Collection, Switzerland, acquired from Charles-Emile Moinat & Fils SA, 1974.
With Sinai & Sons Ltd, London.
European Private Collection, acquired from the above in 2009.

Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1900
Exposition de la miniature et des arts Précieux, Paris, January 1902.
Fondation Neumann, Chateau de Gingins, 1994-2004
'Inventing the Modern World: Decorative Arts at the World's Fairs, 1851-1939'
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, 14 April 2012 – 19 August 2012, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, 13 October 2012 – 24 February 2013, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, 12 April 2013 – 21 July 2013, Mint Museum of Art, North Carolina, 22 September 2013-19

Roger Marx, La Décoration et les Industries d'Art à l'Exposition Universelle de 1900, 1901, p. 95.
M.M. L. Benedite, J. Cornely, Exposition Universelle de 1900: Les Beaux-Arts et les Arts Decoratifs, 1901, p. 510.
Phillippe Garner, The Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts 1890-1940, 1997, p. 95.
Georges de Bartha, L'Art 1900: La Collection Neumann, 1978, p. 128.
Alastair Duncan, The Paris Salons 1895-1914, Volume V: Objets d'Art & Metalware, 1999, p. 252.
Christian E. Jackson, Peacock , London, 2006, ill. p. 163.
The Delicate Glow : On Peacocks and Mother of Pearl, exhibition catalogue, Mannheim, 25 September 2015-17 January 2016, p. 36.

Maker's mark and French Minerva on mounts of cap and bottle. Dark Blue enamel on the head, neck and top of bottle with restoration. There has been oxidisation to the silver ground below the transparent enamel forming a not-unattractive cobweb of dark lines. There has also been some denting in one place to the silver ground, near the base rim and also scrapes to the transparent enamel with discreet restorations in some places. The overall effect however is impressive. unique object.
"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."

‘Who in the rainbow neck rejoice,
Than costliest silks more richly tinted,
In charms of grace and form unstinted,--
Who strut in kingly pride,
Your glorious tail spread wide
With brilliants which in sheen do
Outshine the jeweller's bow window?
Is there a bird beneath the blue
That has more charms than you?’
La Fontaine, THE PEACOCK’S COMPLAINT TO JUNO Book II - Fable 17.

Magnificent with its shimmering sapphire-blue and emerald-green feathers, the peacock has symbolised sovereignty and power for centuries for Eastern civilisations. The king of birds was seen pulling the chariot of goddess Hera in Greek mythology, was the emblem of the Ming Dynasty in China, and sits atop the mythical jewelled Peacock Throne, the seat of the Mughal emperors of India, as guardian of their authority. In Hinduism, the peacock is associated with the deity Lakshmi and symbolises benevolence, patience, kindness and good luck.

The early Christians considered it as a symbol of immortality and resurrection and depicted it, often by the tree of life, in frescoes, mosaics, jewellery¹ and later in medieval illustrated manuscripts. In European Arts, however, the peacock is considered as a symbol of outward beauty and vainglory.² Augustus the Strong commissioned a life-size peacock in the newly discovered and priceless white Meissen porcelain for his Porcelain Palace, while its plumes were used to embellish Queen Marie-Antoinette’s extravagant hats, a fashion that elegant ladies kept until the 1930s. James Cox invented a marvellous peacock automaton in 1781 for Grigory Potemkin who presented it to Catherine the Great.³ This was then a source of inspiration for Carl Fabergé when he created an Easter egg in 1908 presented by Tsar Nicholas I to his mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna.

It is for its beauty and vainglory that the peacock became the ultimate artistic symbol in the second half of the 19th century. The inspiration started in England when the Aesthetic movement promoted the idea that beauty is supreme and developed a philosophy of art for art’s sake. The critic, John Ruskin, used the peacock itself as a reference for the new aesthetic: ‘Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless, peacocks and lilies for instance.’⁴

Artists, desperate to break with the classical patterns of European art, looked back to the medieval ages and towards the Far East. The International Exhibitions were a vibrant source of inspiration for artists, especially the 1862 London International Exhibition which included Japanese ceramics and prints. The most iconic Aesthetic creation was certainly the Peacock Room created in 1876-1877 by the American artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). The painter undertook the decoration of the room intended to welcome his painting, as he considered the design of the room unsuitable for it. His audacity created a long-standing row with his patron, F. R. Leyland, but gained him future recognition as this room is now considered one of the greatest surviving Aesthetic interiors.⁵ To follow were the lavish illustrations of Oscar Wilde’s plays by Aubrey Beardsley (1871-1898) who used the peacock as an incarnation of the perfect dandy: handsome, proud and decadent.

By the 1890s, the peacock had become the symbol of fashionable exoticism and conspicuous opulence: its intense blue and green colours and its elongated neck and plumes perfectly suited the audacious curves and volutes invented by the Art Nouveau movement.⁶ The motif of the peacock was everywhere : on tiles by William de Morgan, stained-glass windows, fabric, metal fire-screens, lamps, wallpaper, as well as ceramics, glass vases by Louis Comfort Tiffany (see illustration) and jewellery by Rene Lalique (see illustration) to name only a few. In England, the architect and designer Charles Ashbee, founder of the Guild of Handicraft, is known to have designed a dozen peacock jewels⁷ and had commissioned, around 1900, a painting of peacocks for his dining room.⁸ In Paris, the artist Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939), considered the father of ‘Art Nouveau’, celebrated for his posters for the actress Sarah Bernhardt, conceived a shop in 1900 for the jeweller Fouquet with two spectacular peacocks set against glowing designs in stained glass⁹. The boutique was at the time considered as a complete work of art done ‘so brilliantly that the jeweller and his products find themselves in a milieu which is so appropriate to its intended application that it almost seems to be a talking sign.’¹⁰
1900 was indeed the year of spectacular, precious and luxurious creations as statements to welcome the new century. In this context, the Paris Universal Exhibition united the most eminent artists who ‘made some contribution toward bringing aesthetic values into arts and crafts’.¹¹ Among them was Eugène Feuillâtre, ‘le maître de tous les secrets de l’émailleur¹² ’ who created and exhibited this spectacular, precious and luxurious Peacock flacon.

Eugène Feuillâtre, un génie de l’Art Nouveau

Eugène Feuillâtre (1870-1916) was born in Dunkirk and is recorded in 1885 as starting an apprenticeship in the Paris workshop of Louis Houillon. His master was a well-known enameller who pushed his students to rediscover the old techniques of enamelling by themselves and encouraged their experiments to discover new techniques. Feuillâtre was the first to reinvent an enamelling technique on silver since only copper and gold had been used since the Middle Ages.¹³ This discovery allowed him to create a far more vibrant palette of colours and tones, ‘using the cold shades of silver and platinum as well as the warm shades by subordinating them to the respective artistical draft: he would enamel a landscape with a sunset or an autumnal theme on copper, a strictly ornamental décor or a flower which he wanted to stand out from the ground on silver.‘¹⁴
His aim was to develop new techniques in order to create new forms and colours for the creation of an Art Nouveau - the New Art for the New Century. His exceptional talent and ideas brought him to the notice of René Lalique. The jeweller was already celebrated for his jewellery of strikingly new design and he invited the young, 20 year old Feuillâtre to head his enamelling workshop in 1890.
In 1897, Feuillâtre opened his own workshop in Rue Villedo 3, and presented his first works in 1898 at the Paris Salon of the Societé des Artistes Français where he enjoyed great success¹⁵, initiated by the Musée des Arts décoratifs who acquired their first object by the artist - a flacon in white translucent enamel with ton-sur-ton peacock feathers (Fig. XXX). The same year, he was invited to present his works at the London New Gallery where every piece exhibited was acquired by museums or private collectors.¹⁶ Feuillâtre rapidly developed a large clientèle in France and abroad, such as the artist Moreau Neret who painted his portrait in exchange for a bijou¹⁷ or the American Louis Comfort Tiffany. The latter acquired several of his pieces which are now in the Tiffany collection and then also worked in partnership with the French enameller as a few rare pieces bearing both maker’s marks prove.¹⁸
By the time of the Paris Universal Exhibition in 1900, Eugène Feuillâtre was a well-established artist, with many pieces already in museums: Breslau, Prague, Pforzheim, Berlin, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Budapest and even Tokyo.¹⁹ He won a gold medal²⁰ and was venerated among the eminent artists manifesting the skills and refinement of the French Art Nouveau movement. The present Peacock Flacon was shown at the 1900 Exhibition for the first time and must have been one of Feuillâtre's highlights since he showed it again in 1902. The art revue Art et Décoration described the Peacock Flacon in 1902 as a striking example of Feuillâtre's talent, followed by many publications in the second half of the 20th century: ‘M. Feuillâtre obtient des œuvres caractéristiques, variées et du plus bel aspect. Ornemaniste de premier ordre et exécutant lui-même tout son objet, émaux et orfèvrerie, il donne à ses œuvres un aspect de richesse éclatante qu’il enclot dans un style excellent. [Il] y montre une excellent vitrine […. ]un flacon d’argent ou s’épanouit la queue d’un paon blanc, le corps formant le bouchon et les pennes s’enroulant autour d’un corps du vase.’’²¹
During the following years, Feuillâtre was a tireless agent of the Art Nouveau mouvement: his drea m was to expand the fashion of enamel on objects instead of being limited to jewellery only, as the Peacock flacon shows: ‘doué de volonté, l’artiste ne se laissera pas grise par les premiers succès qui furent grands, mais continuera a chercher encore […] dans l’orfèvrerie par exemple, il a à son actif des œuvres des plus intéressantes qui ne sont, à mon avis, que le point de départ d’une technique nouvelle.’²² He joined the newly created Societe des Artistes Décorateurs²³ who described Feuillâtre’s stand as each year ‘une surprise agréable et est pour lui l'occasion d'un nouveau succès’²⁴. He also regularly featured among the artists representing France, alongside Lalique, Sandoz, Boucheron, Falize and Odiot, at the International Exhibitions: Glasgow in 1901, then Turin (1902), Berlin (1902-1903),Liege (1905), London (Franco-British Exhibition, 1908), Brussels and Santiago (1910). Art Magazines and reports of exhibitions often referred to Feuillâtre as ‘un honneur pour cet art nouveau’²⁵ and praised him for his ‘incomparable enamels [as he] understands so well how to combine sound knowledge of his vocation with the finest gifts of fancy.’²⁶
Feuillâtre died on the battlefield on 30th September 1916 and his wife Lina continued the workshop for a little while but his talent was never equalled, so that Henri Vevey, in his History of Jewellery, wished ‘to dedicate a chapter solely to Eugène Feuillâtre [and those ] who created important enamelled objects and very pretty pieces of jewellery which were much admired in annual Salons’.²⁷

Footnotes

1. It originated from the belief that its flesh did not decay after death. See Victoria &Albert, gold ring, the bezel of two confronted peacocks, Byzantine, 6-10^th century (615-1871)

2. See the exhibition catalogue Strut : The Peacock and Beauty in Art, Hudson River Museum, exhibition catalogue, October 2014-January 2015.

3. Now at the Hermitage. Museum number Э-3425

4. J. Ruskin, The Stones of Venice (1853), Volume I, chapter II, section 17.

5. The Peacock Room was originally designed as a dining room at 49 Prince's Gate, Kensington, owned by the British shipping magnate Frederick Richards Leyland. It is now located in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

6. Siegfried Bing (1838-1905), a German-Born French art dealer, built up his business based on these imports and edited the periodical Le Japon Artistique from 1888. He was aware of a similar interest in Brussels, intrigued by a new kind of art that refused to accept the cult of the past and academic traditions. Bing adopted this idea and named his gallery ‘l’Art Nouveau’

7. The Victoria & Albert Museum – M.31-2005.

8. See sketch of it, The Victoria & Albert Museum, E. 1903-1990.

9. Mucha's designs remained in place until 1923 when they were replaced by more up-to-date fittings. In 1941 Fouquet gave each piece of Mucha's revolutionary design to the Musée Carnavalet for safekeeping.

10. A. Robert, Revue de la Bijouterie, 1901.

11. Alphonse Mucha, Documents Decoratifs 1902

12. Henri Franz,’Eugène Feuillâtre’, l’ Art Décoratif, 7 – 8 Janvier 1901, p. 168.

13. H. Franz, op. cit., p. 168.

14. Barbara Furrer, ‘Eugène Feuillâtre’, Pariser Schmuck: Vom Zweiten Kaiserreich zur Belle Epoque, Munich, 1989, p. 68-74.

15. 'Avec  les vases de M. Feuillâtre nous trouvons une nouvelle application de l’émail, ou plutôt d’émaux, en général de tons très effacés bleuâtres, lilas ou verdâtres sur l’argent. Les formes sont simples et bien enveloppées, comme d’une sorte de pulpe, par l’email parfondu.’

16. H. Franz, op. cit., p. 166.

17. B. Furrer, op. cit.

18. ‘a colour stereoscope slide preserved in the Tiffany & Co Archives bearing the name of Feuillatre illustrates a number of enamelled [pieces] suggesting that he may have supplied a stock of items for the firm to sell in New York. Three circular boxes and a compote dish [..] have surface to date bearing his mark and that of Tiffany & Co.’, Clare Phillips et al, Bejewelled by Tiffany, 1837-1987, p. 41.

19. H. Franz, op. cit., P, 170

20. B. Furrer, op. cit., p. 251 .

21. Art et Décoration, ‘L’exposition de l’art et de la miniature’, January 1902, p. 95.

22. ‘Maître de tous les secrets de l’émailleur, M. Feuillâtre rêve, de faire entrer l’email pour une large part dans la décoration et l’ornementation général. Pourquoi en effet, l’émail serait-il limité à la parure et aux petites pièces décoratives?’ H. Franz. p. 170.

23. The Société des artistes décorateurs (SAD) was founded in 1901 in response to increasing interest in France in fine and applied arts. It was aimed at satisfying the demand of the prosperous urban elite for high-quality French craftsmanship and cabinetmaking.

24. Revue du Salon de la société des artistes décorateurs en 1913, p. 193

25. Revue de la Bijouterie, Joaillerie, Orfèvrerie, Octobre 1901, p. 190.

26. Franco-British exhibition, illustrated review, 1908, p. 174.

27. H. Vevey, La Bijouterie Française, Paris, 1906-1908, vol. III, p. 650.