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Enter the World of the Ribes Collection, The Essence of French Elegance

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A selection of historical pieces from the collection of the Count and Countess de Ribes, one of the most fascinating ensembles of painting and French Decorative Arts to appear on the market in recent years and tracing three centuries of French history and the essence of Parisian sophistication, will be offered for sale in Paris on 11 December. Click here to discover exceptional paintings, sculpture, furniture and works of art, several with French Royal provenance.

Past Auction
La Collection Ribes I
11 December 2019 | 6:00 PM CET | Paris

Enter the World of the Ribes Collection, The Essence of French Elegance

  • Elisabeth Louise Vigée-Le Brun, Juno Borrowing the Belt of Venus, 1781
    Estimate €1,000,000-1,500,000
    In 1781, Vigée-Le Brun produced the present painting, Juno Borrowing the Belt of Venus. This was commissioned by the younger brother of Louis XVI, Charles Philippe de France, Comte d’Artois – a prince known before the Revolution for his expensive whims and libertine lifestyle. The theme of this mythological composition with three figures was drawn from an episode in Book XIV of the Iliad.
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  • A Mercury gilt-bronze mounted Kingwood, Amaranth and Satiné Commode, Louis XV, circa 1745, stamped B.V.R.B
    Estimate €150,000-250,000
    This marquetry commode is remarkable for the quality of its execution. It is fundamental to the works by the cabinetmaker Bernard II Vanrisamburgh and shows a change in the composition of the marquetry design with the asymmetrical marquetry framed by the more symmetrical gilt-bronze cartouche. The asymmetrical pattern is characteristic of a looser Rocaille style.
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  • A Louis XVI gilt-bronze mounted ebony 'bureau à cylindre', circa 1775; with a gilt-bronze mounted ebony and tortoiseshell 'Parcae' clock, attributed to A.C. Boulle, late Louis XIV, circa 1710
    Estimate €250,000-500,000
    Distinguished by a great Neoclassical simplicity, Claude-Charles Saunier’s creations are exemplified by the delicate stringing which highlight the wooden veneer. This type of bureau à cylindre (cylinder desk) was notably made by him, and this example is stamped ‘C.C.SAUNIER’ and ‘JME’. André-Charles Boulle asked the sculptor Nicolas Coustou to create the three Parcae figures, specifically for this clock. The clock and the bureau associated circa 1820. Passionate about the arts, Count Alexander Sergeyevich Stroganov built one of the most important collection of Decorative Arts and paintings for the Stroganov Palace in Saint-Peteresburg, where this desk and clock were exhibited.
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  • An ormolu and patinated-bronze mounted, white and black marble musical and automaton mantel clock, Louis XVI, Paris, circa 1784
    Estimate €1,000,000–2,000,000
    This masterpiece of mechanical ingenuity created by Jean-Baptiste André Furet and François-Louis Godon was a gift for the Royal family. The head serves as a mantel clock. Pulling the earring suspended from the right ear allows the eyes to scroll and show the hours and the minutes, whilst melodies play from the musical box when pulling the earring suspended from the left ear. It was to be given as a les étrennes gift on the first day of the new year, to the Royal Prince, the Dauphin. However, the Queen, who saw and heard it, did not think it expedient that an object so precious, so precise, should be placed in the hands of the young Royal Prince. The clock was then brought to the Garde-Meuble and five years later, was delivered, as an advance on the value of goods belonging to the Compagnie Brun La Jarre.
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  • An Ivory Twenty-Leaf Fan, Dieppe, circa 1785
    Estimate €10,000-15,000
    According to some sources, this fan was created after drawings by Joseph-Marie Vien but, despite our research, we were not able to confirm it. According to family tradition, this fan has been offered to the Queen in 1785 by the town of Dieppe, then specialised in ivory works of art. Another fan is mentionned by the Count de Reiset in 1885 in his book Modes et usages au temps de Marie-Antoinette: livre-journal de Madame Eloffe: this fan would have been offered to the Queen by his brother-in-law, Count de Provence (later King Louis XVIII). The fan was given by the Queen to Madame du Crey who was the Keeper of Her majesty's laces. Madame du Crey's daughter, Madame La Bruyère, with no descendant, gave her collection and the fan to Eugène de Thiac (1806-1892) who married Eliza-Victorine Quentin (1820-1908), granddaughter of Jean de Ribes (1750-1830). Their cousin, Charles-Aimé-Auguste, 4th Comte de Ribes inherited the Royal gift.
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  • A pair of large gilt-bronze mounted Oriental alabaster vases, Louis XVI
    Estimate €120,000-180,000
    During the 18th century, every enthusiast had to possess a collection of marble and hard stone objects and vases, which are often precisely described and classified by mineral. The most illustrious bronze artists of the time were inspirited to create and enhanced these cleverly crafted artifacts with gilt bronze mounts. Pavel Pavlovitch inherited the property of his uncle Anatoly Demidov who was one of the great art lovers and collectors of his time. In 1880, Pavel Pavlovitch decided it was his turn to sell the contents of the villa and at this legendary auction, these vases were then sold.
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  • Bronze de la Couronne n°335, Rape of a Sabine, attributed to Antonio Susini (1558-1624), the model by Giambologna (1529-1608) circa 1590-1610
    Estimate €2,500,000-5,000,000
    And Bronze de la Couronne n°236, Fortuna, attributed to Antonio Susini (1558-1624), the model by Giambologna (1529-1608), Florence, circa 1580-1600
    Estimate €1,000,000-2,000,000

    For the first time in its history, after being handed down the generations for more than two centuries, this exceptional group of three bronzes from the collection of Louis XIV – which remained in the Royal collections until the Revolution – is being offered for sale in public auction. It included two masterpieces by Giambologna: The Rape of a Sabine and Fortuna, in casts of outstanding quality, reflecting the level of perfection achieved by Antonia Susina, the master’s leading assistant, who cast the finest examples of Giambologna’s works.
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  • Marguerite Gérard & Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Interesting Student
    Estimate €300,000-400,000
    Even though Fragonard, who married Marguerite Gérard’s sister, quickly took her under his wing and trained her, her own individual artistic style evolved, soon becoming distinct from her brother-in-law’s art. She developed her own themes and idioms, which assured her success far into the early decades of the nineteenth century. The Interesting Student is one of the young Marguerite Gérard’s most accomplished compositions. She was only twenty-six years old when she painted it and it demonstrated that she had completely mastered her pictorial technique.
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  • A pair of large Dutch-Delft earthenware Obelisks or Pyramids, late 17th century, circa 1695-1700
    Estimate €150,000-250,000
    During the late 17th century, Delft earthenware craftsmen created and perfected the making of large vases to hold cut flowers for the court of William III of Orange-Nassau (then known as William III of England) and his wife Mary II and their aristocratic entourage in Holland and Britain. The design and shape of this vase incorporates three distinct sources of inspiration: the vase with several spouts or tubes appears to have originated from Persian ceramics of the 12th century; the obelisk, directly inspired by the Antique, is a symbol of power; the third source of inspiration for these pyramids is the famous Nanjing Porcelain Pagoda.
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  • A Louis XVI gilt-bronze mounted, ebony veneer, engraved brown tortoiseshell, brass and tin 'première partie' marquetry cabinet à hauteur d'appui, circa 1780, stamped 'E. LEVASSEUR'
    Estimate €100,000-200,000
    Furniture by André-Charles Boulle was fashionable throughout the 18th century and although it experienced a relative disaffection during the Rococo area, it returned during the Classical Revival. Boulle's work fascinated his contemporaries as well as his clients and decorative art dealers. This cabinet à hauteur d'appui format was the result of an evolution originating in the tall cabinets on stands that, around 1770, no longer met the needs within new interior design trends. This modern interpretation required freeing a large surface above the furniture in order to affix paintings onto the walls. Dating from the early 18th century, cabinetmakers like Étienne Levasseur specialised in the restoration and manufacture of "Boulle furniture".
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  • Hubert Robert, Morning; Evening
    Estimate €1,000,000-1,500,000
    A prolific and versatile artist of unfaltering talent, Hubert Robert was one of the painters who left their decisive imprint on the art of the last years of the Ancien Régime. Inspired by his Roman tour, he was known as the painter of ruins and monuments ravaged by time, reflecting Diderot’s ideas about capturing the ‘poetic’ in them, which he did to great effect. This fascination with ruins opened the way for Romanticism, but also sounded a prophetic knell just before the collapse of the Ancien Régime. These two paintings are among the most perfect examples of capriccios of ruins produced by the artist in the 1770s and 1780s.
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  • A Gold and Pietra Dura Snuff Box, Johann Christian Neuber, Dresden, circa 1770
    Estimate €500,000-700,000
    This snuff box is extraordinary not only because of the masterly pietra dura technique employed by the goldsmith but also for its unique design and the subtle colouring of the chosen hardstones. These are not the local Saxon stones which Neuber went on so successfully to promote but more precious lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, porphyry from Egypt and recently discovered chrysoprase from Poland. The box is not signed by Neuber but has traditionally been considered as his work, an attribution confirmed by Alexis Kugel's study of 2012.
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