Lot n° 194
Estimation :
4000 - 6000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 5 152EUR
Satinwood and amaranth veneer curved chest... - Lot 194 - Coutau-Bégarie
Satinwood and amaranth veneer curved chest of drawers.
Cambered legs with sabots, astragal and chased and gilded bronze falls.
It opens on the front with two drawers without a crosspiece decorated with a butterfly wing.
Royal red marble top.
H. 88 cm - W. 115 cm - D. 55,5 cm
Louis XV period.
(Some missing veneer, replated front elements).
Stamped "L.BOUDIN" and "JME", Léonard Boudin (1735-1804) received master on March 4, 1761.
Charms & Entertainment under the Ancien Régime
The Hôtel de Montmorency, in the heart of the Paris of the spectacle!
It would seem that the theatrical vocation of the great Parisian boulevards, particularly that of the boulevard Montmartre, bordering the park of the Hôtel de Montmorency-Luxembourg, does not date from yesterday...
Once the amusements presented in the following pages were closed, and the architectural dismantling of the first years of Victor Hugo's century was completed, the place, having changed owners, gave birth to the Panoramas: these immense rotundas hosted the new attractions of the painter Robert Barker, immersing the public in a 360° painting, visible from the central platform...
In 1807, the park was once again amputated by the construction of the Variety Theatre. Then, a vast real estate operation took over the Panoramas in 1831. Only the passage of the same name remains...
In the middle of the 18th century, Louis XV's France, like the rest of Europe, was enthusiastic about chinoiseries. Thus, architects, decorators and ornamentalists, freeing themselves from the classicism of the end of Louis XIV's reign, drew inspiration from exotic stories, the reports of distant embassies and the imports of the French East India Company, to infuse the period with a style as extravagant as it was refined.
There are countless singeries and other Chinese cabinets with porcelain decorations, as well as garden factories, ephemeral constructions based on the architectural vocabulary of the Middle Kingdom.
In vogue in European princely residences, these follies portray a fantasized China in a colorful, light and energetic style, whose success did not wane until the Revolution.
In this spirit, Anne-Léon de Montmorency-Fosseux, duke of Montmorency (1731-1799) and his wife Charlotte-Françoise had a fantasy pagoda built in the park of their Parisian hotel, which extended from the rue Saint-Marc to the present boulevard Montmartre, by Pierre Rousseau, the architect of the Hôtel de Salm, who had already made some arrangements for them.
Rather than presenting sketches of this Temple of Serenity, Rousseau had a model made of wood and paper mache to showcase his architectural choices. Several costumed characters give life to this first concrete expression of his artistic vision.
One detail to note: the rockeries are made up of small cases that one can easily imagine filled with sweetness or preciousness during the official presentation of the project...
No doubt that the deal was done!
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