Lot n° 273
Estimation :
40000 - 60000
EUR
Result without fees
Result
: 150 000EUR
Flat desk said to the Greek in marquetry... - Lot 273 - Coutau-Bégarie
Flat desk said to the Greek in marquetry of amaranth, rosewood and light wood nets, opening with three drawers in the belt, one of which is secret, decorated with friezes of post punctuated with swirling rosettes in chased and gilt bronze. The dark tray of a green leather with gilded decoration of scrolls and flowers and surrounded by a gilded bronze mold. It rests on four straight tapered legs with offsets at the corners, surmounted by garlands of laurels in rope wells and finished with ormolu hooves. It is decorated with two pulls on the sides.
Louis XVI period, around 1770.
Stamped Montigny and JME.
Philippe Claude Montigny received master in 1766.
H. : 79cm ; W. : 129.5cm ; D. : 64.5cm.
Restorations of use, some wear to the gilding, leather replaced.
Provenance :
-Jules Porgès in his hotel at 18 avenue Montaigne in Paris.
-By descent.
Notes:
Our flat desk is part of the neoclassical trend, sometimes outrageous, initiated on the return from the Marquis de Marigny's trip to Italy, accompanied by the architect Soufflot and the engraver Charles Nicolas Cocchin in 1751.
The most obvious manifestation of this Greek taste is embodied in the desk of Lalive de Jully, made by the cabinetmaker Joseph Baumhauer in 1757 from the cartoons of the architect Le Lorrain.
Our desk takes up the main precepts, in a more muted style.
Thanks to the help of his cousin René Dubois, the cabinetmaker Montigny signed his most beautiful works with his large flat desks that he made in many copies, in different dimensions and materials.
One example was delivered in 1765 by Poirier to the Earl of Coventry (see A. Pradère, Les achats parisiens de mobilier du comte de Coventry, L'Estampille, l'objet d'art, June 1996, pp. 46-53).
At the headquarters of the Banque de France, there is a large model with a cardboard box from the former collection of Joseph Bardac, very similar to ours.
Finally, another very similar model, sold by Galerie Georges Petit on May 26, 1913, is illustrated in the book by Giacomo Wannenes, Le mobilier français du XVIIIe siècle, p. 238.
Our desk appears on this photo of the library on the second floor of the Hotel Porgès on avenue Montaigne. It is next to rare 18th century books, Sèvres and Saxony porcelain display cases. The painting by Watteau, now in the Getty Museum, is also on display. This painting, which remained in the collector's estate, was presented at auction on November 29, 1976. Erroneously attributed to Philippe Mercier, it was sold for 112,000 francs (Maître Audap, Etude Audap Godeau Solanet) to the collector Paul Louis Weiller, before being sold for 10 million euros to the Getty Museum in 2012.
Jules Porgès
The son of a Czech jeweler, he came from the Austro-Hungarian Jewish bourgeoisie of Prague, which made its mark in the diamond trade. In 1857, at the age of 18, he joined his brother Heinrich in Paris, where he created the company Jules Porgès et Compagnie and became a renowned diamond dealer. By 1875, he already owned about 10% of the diamond mines in the Kimberley area of South Africa. Jules Porgès sold the French Diamond Company of the Cape of Good Hope to the future De Beers conglomerate in 1887. Nicknamed the King of Diamonds, he also acquired gold mines in the Johannesburg region between 1880 and 1888.
Settled in Paris, he married Anna Wodianer of Austrian origin in 1877. Both of them became naturalized French citizens in 1898. Jules Porgès and especially his wife quickly integrated into Parisian life and its aristocracy. In 1892 Jules and Anna Porgès had Ernest Sanson build a private mansion at 18, avenue Montaigne in Paris, inspired by the Château d'Asnieres.
Jules placed his astonishing collection of paintings there, including Le Lorrain, Bruegel, Van Dyck and Rubens, as well as art objects, ivories, enamels and bronzes from the Renaissance.
The Louvre Museum exhibits a bronze by Ferdinand Tacca representing Roger and Angelica from the collections of Louis XIV, purchased in 1924 at the afterlife sale of Jules Porgès.
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