Offered by Franck Baptiste Paris
Pair of table servants in finely chiseled bronze and gilded with mercury.
The circular bases decorated with a frieze of vine leaves rest on three claw feet; they are surmounted by three putti in the guise of Cupid (bow and arrow), Bacchus (cup and bunch of grapes) and Psyche. (butterfly and crown).
The cups cut with facets and engraved with vine leaves are original and attributable to the Montcenis crystal factory.* (A fel on a cup)
Very high quality gilding with a matt and original double patina.
Parisian work from the Restoration period around 1820 by the master foundry carver Pierre Philippe Thomire (1751-1843).
Height: 59cm; Diameter: 22.5cm
Similar model but with two floors formerly in the collection of the King of Italy Umberto II.
Similar model illustrated in the book H. Ottomeyer & P. ??Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, München 1986, nos. 5.16.14 and 5.16.8.
Model with similar subjects Lot 305 Christies sale London, 2 October 2013
*The Montcenis crystal factory was founded in Sévres in 1781, then the royal treasury bought the domain of the Duke of Orléans for Queen Marie-Antoinette in 1784.
The establishment of Messrs. Lambert and Boyer then took the name of Manufacture des cristals et enamels de la Reine.
In 1787, 60 people remained at the crystal factory, but following a ruling by the Council of State, the Manufacture des Cristals was transferred to Le Creusot, near Montcenis, in Burgundy.
After a few journeys and a shutdown of the ovens during the revolution, the factory resumed its activity and resumed growth under the aegis of its new administrator Benjamin-François de la Douespe du Fougerais (1766-1821).
The manufacture was twice rewarded at the Exhibitions of French Industrial Products, in 1801 and 1802.
From 1806, it became the main supplier of glassware to the Empress and then took the title of "Manufacture des Cristaux du Montcenis de S. M. l'Impératrice".
Fougerais then provided abundantly, the house of the Emperor, Queen Hortense, Murat... and even exported to other European courts its chandeliers, glass services, cups etc.
He collaborated with the greatest bronzers of his time such as Thomire, Ravrio or Galle.
Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843) was the most important Parisian bronzier of the last quarter of the 18th century and the first decades of the following century. In his early days, he worked for Pierre Gouthière, engraver-founder to the king, then collaborated in the mid-1770s with Louis Prieur. He then became one of the official bronzers of the Royal Manufacture of Sèvres, working on the bronze decoration of most of the great creations of the time. After the Revolution, he bought the business of Martin-Eloi Lignereux and became the largest supplier of bronze furnishings for imperial castles and palaces. At the same time, he worked for a wealthy French and foreign private clientele, including some of Napoleon's marshals. He retired in 1823 but continued to supervise the company left to his sons-in-law, a company which until his death in 1843 delivered the royal palaces for the various different regimes. (Louis XVIII, Charles X, Louis Philippe) as well as many European courts.
Our opinion :
The two table servants that we present come from a large table centerpiece, probably made for a European princely court.
This type of model can be seen at the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg or at the Royal Palace in Madrid.
The mythological subjects of our two pieces constitute the qualitative apogee of the production of Thomire, whether by the extremely fine carving or the very charged and perfectly matt mercury gilding.
Presented with their original crystal cups, they are first-rate decorative pieces.
