An important French lunch set, mahogany, silver-gilt and gilt-bronze, Martin-Guillaume Biennais, Paris, 1804-1809
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 EUR
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Description
the circular mahogany stand with turntable, on four paw-feet, marked near on one foot D.W.3369, the base encircled by a frieze of gilt bronze laurel leaves, the tray with four trapezodial compartments remarked in Paris between 1809 and 1819, the lids embossed with a palmettes frieze, the eagle handles impaling a thunderbolt, in the centre a covered bowl and its lining, the bowl resting on a pedestal decorated with a frieze of bees and marked in ink D.W.3316-5, the lining engraved under the base Biennais Orfre de Lrs Mtès / Impériales et Royales, the pearl-rimmed lid decorated with a frieze of bees and within wreaths on matted ground, the finial in form of a seated Bacchus child, the three upper mahogany trays supported by two pillars decorated with gilt-bronze terms, each with a salt-cellar in form of a gilt-bronze shell, the lid chased with a triton in a shell riding two dolphins, the first tray supporting six silver plates, Odiot, Paris, modern, the border decorated with a water leaves frieze (diam. 21.3 cm, 2.379 g.), the two upper trays with diamond-tipped glassware comprising three covered flasks and five glasses, and a silver-gilt egg-cup, Biennais, all centered on a small silver-gilt cup, Biennais
(27)
Diam. 56 cm, haut. 43 cm, poids des pièces anciennes 3.611 g. ; diam. 22 in., 17in. high, the old pieces 116oz 2dwt
Puiforcat collection;
David David-Weill collection, Drouot, Paris, 4 mai 1972, vol. 3, no. 10 (inscribed with ink number 3316-5);
Oxeda gallery in July 1972;
Thence by descent.
The glassware and plates were ordered around 1970 on the model of an identical lunch set illustrated in Les Grands Orfèvres de Louis XIII à Charles X (see literature).
This model, known as "déjeuner sur plateau tournant", was ordered in a few copies. Biennais seems to be the only silversmith to have produced this type of ingenious lunch service.
There are several examples of such lunch sets. Anne Dion-Tenenbaum, in her book L'Orfèvre de Napoléon Martin-Guillaume Biennais, RMN, 2003, pp. 34-35, illustrates an example in the Louvre, but with only the four kidney-shaped dishes and the finials in the shape of a seated dog and not an eagle (inv. 0A9696). This example belonged to Marshal Bernadotte, King of Sweden. For a very similar service, also decorated with eagles, see Les Grands Orfèvres de Louis XIII à Charles X, 1965, pp. 282 and 283. This example, from the C. Ruxton Love, is said to have been given by the Emperor to his sister Pauline, Princess Borghese, on his return from Elba. It has kept its original leather case.
Another copy was delivered to Empress Marie-Louise at the time of her marriage in 1810. In this delivery, the four kidney-shaped dishes were intended, two for starters and two for entremets. They were completed by a set of eight plates.
A similar lunch set belonged to Eugène de Beauharnais (Sotheby's New York, 7 June 1972, lot 542), another to Stéphanie de Bade (National Museum of History, Bucharest) and a last one would have belonged to Pauline Borghese (Metropolitan Museum, New York).
