PAIRE DE SELLETTES D`ÉPOQUE TRANSITION - photo 1
PAIRE DE SELLETTES D`ÉPOQUE TRANSITION - photo 2
PAIRE DE SELLETTES D`ÉPOQUE TRANSITION - photo 3
PAIRE DE SELLETTES D`ÉPOQUE TRANSITION - photo 4
PAIRE DE SELLETTES D`ÉPOQUE TRANSITION - photo 5
PAIRE DE SELLETTES D`ÉPOQUE TRANSITION - photo 6

PAIRE DE SELLETTES D`ÉPOQUE TRANSITION

Lot 26
20.11.2024 16:00UTC +01:00
Classic
Sold
€ 119 700
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationFrance, Paris
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 1329903
Lot 26 | PAIRE DE SELLETTES D'ÉPOQUE TRANSITION
Estimate value
€ 120 000 – 180 000
PAIRE DE SELLETTES D'ÉPOQUE TRANSITION
ATTRIBUÉE À MARTIN CARLIN, VERS 1765-1770
En poirier noirci, mouluré et sculpté, panneaux de laque du Japon et ornementation de bronze ciselé et doré, le plateau circulaire ceint d'une frise d'oves, la ceinture à décor de paysages sinisants ceints d'encadrements de faisceaux de lauriers, sur un piètement tripode centré d'une colonne torsadée et relié par des guirlandes de fleurs, la base centrée d'une pomme de pin et appliquée de feuilles d'acanthe ; fente à un pied, la torsade probablement associée
H. 84 cm. (33 in.) ; D. 37 cm. (14 ½ in.)




Provenance

Importante collection privée française



Literature

Bibliographie comparative:
D. Alcouffe, A. Dion-Tenenbaum, A. Lefébure, Le Mobilier du Musée du Louvre, Dijon, 1993, p. 244, 254, 258 et 261.T. Wolvesperges, Le meuble français en laque au XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 2000, p. 362.



Further details

A PAIR OF LATE LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED EBONISED JAPANNED STANDS ATTRIBUTED TO MARTIN CARLIN, CIRCA 1765-1770

A clear attribution

Of German origin, Martin Carlin (circa 1730-1785) was awarded the title of master cabinetmaker in 1766 and established himself in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, under the sign of the “Saint-Esprit” or “La Colombe”. His family ties with Jean-François Oeben, whose younger sister he married, and with Roger Van der Cruse, forged his style. Unlike other cabinetmakers of German origin and Oeben's pupils, Carlin rarely used marquetry, preferring to contrast the gold of bronzes with the polychrome enamel surfaces of Sèvres porcelain plates or the dark backgrounds of lacquer panels.

The tripod and circular drum of these sellettes, adorned with “quarter-circle” plates alternating with medallions or rosettes, are features common to a number of Martin Carlin's works, such as two chiffonier tables in the Louvre (inv. OA 7624 and inv. OA 10467, illustrated in D. Alcouffe, A. Dion-Tenenbaum, A. Lefébure, Le Mobilier Musée Louvre, Dijon, 1993, p. 228 and 229). Alcouffe, A. Dion-Tenenbaum, A. Lefébure, Le Mobilier du Musée du Louvre, Dijon, 1993, p. 228 and 229).

The bronzes on these sellettes also reflect those of Carlin: abundant, finely chased, with frames, garlands, friezes and falls of foliage, flowers and fruit, sometimes even associated with the names Gouthière and Thomire. Madame Victoire's commode from the Château de Bellevue and a pair of corner chests by Martin Carlin in the Louvre feature the same bronze frames, with reserve decorations encircled by oves or rais-de-cœurs, as well as similar garlands of flowers and fruit, which Daniel Alcouffe considers characteristic of the cabinetmaker (inv. OA 5498 and inv. 5499, illustrated in D. Alcouffe, A. Dion-Tenenbaum, A. Lefébure, Le Mobilier du Musée du Louvre, Dijon, 1993, p. 254 and 258).

The latter cites as other particularities the acanthus leaf falls and moldings with oves, gadroons or rosettes, found on the two pieces of furniture mentioned, but also on a flap desk and a desk by Martin Carlin in the Louvre, running along the cornice of one and the belt of the other. (inv. OA 11176 and inv. OA5470, illustrated in D. Alcouffe, A. Dion-Tenenbaum, A. Lefébure, Le Mobilier du Musée du Louvre, Dijon, 1993, p. 244 and 261).

Moreover, the preciousness of Japanese lacquer under Louis XVI, considered far superior to Chinese lacquer, confirms the attribution of these sellettes to Martin Carlin. Indeed, from the 1730s onwards, the French East India Company almost ceased to supply Japanese lacquer for export, making the lacquer panels still available on the Paris market scarce and expensive. Merchants were even forced to buy from Parisian individuals who owned old lacquer furniture. Too expensive, these Japanese lacquers could not be bought and used by simple cabinetmakers: no other cabinetmaker under Louis XVI, apart from Carlin, Baumhauer and BVRB, produced Japanese lacquer furniture of this quality. For example, the panels of the only lacquer commode mentioned in Martin Carlin's after-death inventory came from a cabinet purchased by the marchand-mercier Darnaud for 2,500 livres at the Duc d'Aumont sale in 1782. The preciousness of these lacquers thus helped to draw a clear line between these three great cabinetmakers and the rest of the profession.

In contrast to Chinese lacquer, Japanese lacquer panels were particularly suited to the furniture tastes of the Louis XVI period. Originally inscribed in the reduced drawer surfaces of Japanese cabinets, thus delimited by an imaginary frame and comparable to “little paintings”, they are easily adapted to re-use and are perfectly integrated into narrow neoclassical reserves and frames. What's more, cabinetmakers adapted them to the French aesthetic, marked by a taste for symmetry and a horror of emptiness: they filled in certain spaces with varnish, readjusted certain perspectives, compensated for certain asymmetries and added certain ornaments that would often never have found a place on oriental panels. For example, some of the flowers and butterflies on the lacquer panels of this pair of fifth wheels may have been added on a whim by the cabinetmaker, or a varnisher he called in.

In contrast to Chinese lacquer, Japanese lacquer panels were particularly suited to the furniture taste of the Louis XVI period. Originally inscribed in the small drawer surfaces of Japanese cabinets, thus delimited by an imaginary frame and comparable to “little paintings”, they are easily adapted for re-use and perfectly integrated into narrow neoclassical reserves and frames. What's more, cabinetmakers adapted them to the French aesthetic, marked by a taste for symmetry and a horror of emptiness: they filled in certain spaces with varnish, readjusted certain perspectives, compensated for certain asymmetries and added certain ornaments that would often never have found a place on oriental panels. For example, some of the flowers and butterflies on the lacquer panels of this pair of fifth wheels may have been added on a whim by the cabinetmaker, or a varnisher he called in.

The fruit of a creative process: a prototype

While this pair of sellettes is attributed to Martin Carlin, its construction and final embellishments reveal the cabinetmaker's creative thinking. The almost experimental, trial-and-error assembly of these saddles suggests that they may have served as a prototype: the upper level seems to have been designed for a marble top, before finally accommodating a blackened wooden one during the manufacturing process. Similarly, the thickness of the wood slabs behind the lacquer plates suggests that they were intended to support porcelain plates. In many of Carlin's creations, these panels could be interchanged on a regular basis: some of Martin Carlin's furniture pieces with porcelain plates have their counterparts covered in Japanese lacquer, such as the writing table in the Jones collection, in the Victorian and Albert Museum (T. Wolvesperges, Le meuble français en laque au XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 2000, p. 362), similar to the one with porcelain plates delivered to Duchess Marie Feodorovna in 1784, probably designed at the same time. What's more, the helical torso at the center of these saddles seems to have been combined, probably during construction.

This pair of sellettes also illustrates the spontaneity of the cabinetmaker's creation through a number of specific incompletions. Firstly, they are not stamped. Secondly, the cabinetmaker does not seem to have taken any aesthetic care with the interior assembly, which is not Carlin's usual practice for a construction of this quality: the wood edges have not been polished, and some traces of glue have not been removed. Finally, the choice of blackened wood rather than ebony supports the hypothesis of a unique preparatory model and the experimental nature of the creation; Carlin would not have taken the risk of using such a precious and not very malleable material for a creation whose final appearance he did not foresee exactly in advance.

These trials and errors and changes in aesthetic choices could just as well reflect the wishes or whims of a commissioning customer. He might, for example, have wanted to change the purpose of these sellettes during their manufacture, or adapt them to the changing fashions of the time. Indeed, the taste for lacquer furniture under Louis XVI developed a little later than that for porcelain plaques, more associated with the Transition period. It is therefore possible that the client wished to replace the porcelain plates initially planned, but now obsolete, with lacquer panels.

Whether or not they're a prototype model, these fifth wheels are most certainly the object of a unique, personalized order; Thibaut Wolvesperges writes of BVRB, Baumhauer and Carlin: “These three cabinet-makers produced some of the finest lacquer furniture France has left us, and it seems only natural that exceptional pieces should be made to order, to meet a customer's expectations as closely as possible, since the price of materials is too high for a dealer to take the risk of not selling the finished piece directly” (T. Wolvesperges, Le meuble français en laque au XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 2000). Wolvesperges, Le meuble français en laque au XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 2000).

The synthesis of different influences

Above all, this pair of sellettes illustrates the vital influence of merchant-merchants on Carlin's work, and more broadly, on 18th-century furniture production as a whole. As lacquer panels and porcelain plates were compulsorily purchased by merchant-merchants, they made themselves essential to cabinetmakers, providing them with precise instructions on the style and nature of the pieces ordered and thus shaping the taste of the time. Merchants' predilection for small, light, precious, rigorously constructed and feminine pieces of furniture, such as these sellettes, explains why they make up a large part of Carlin's oeuvre. In this style, a Transition period salon table stamped by Martin Carlin, covered with Japanese lacquer panels, was sold at Christie's in Paris on November 6, 2014, lot 301.

Martin Carlin worked almost exclusively for the marchands-merciers: furniture with porcelain plates, supplied by Simon-Philippe Poirier and Dominique Daguerre, represented around a third of his production, while a quarter of his work was made up of furniture decorated with lacquer panels, supplied in particular by the Darnault brothers. Through merchant-merchants, Carlin also carried out numerous commissions for Marie-Antoinette, the Count and Countess of Provence, the Count of Artois, Mesdames, Louis XV's daughters at the Château de Bellevue and the Countess du Barry. But such was the scarcity of Japanese lacquerware in the 18th century that even the great merchant-merchants found it difficult to procure; thus a gap naturally opened up within the profession, with four of them then predominating in lacquer furniture: Simon-Philippe Poirier, Dominique Daguerre the Juillots and the Darnault brothers.

But this pair of sellettes also reveals the influence of the Greek style of the 1760s-1765s on all Neoclassical furniture production. During the Transition period, excavations of the ancient cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii had a major impact in France, and the discovery of Greek and Roman remains had a lasting influence on ornamental repertoires, painting and furniture production. In 1755, Johann Joachim Winckelman published Réflexions sur l'imitation des ouvrages grecs dans la sculpture et la peinture, considered one of the first neoclassical manifestos. This led to the emergence of new pieces of furniture, such as the Athenian, evoked by our pair of saddles with their circular drum and tripod centered on a helical torso. A comparable Athenienne is painted by Joseph-Marie-Vien, in his Vertueuse Athénienne, 1762, in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg. Similarly, a cassolette by Pierre Gouthière, made around 1780 and housed in the Wallace Collection, London, is modelled on the construction of an Athenian and evokes our pair attributed to Carlin, with its three arched legs and central twist.

From its overall form to the detail of its bronze ornamentation, but also through the preciousness of its Japanese lacquer panels, this pair of fifth wheels corresponds in every way to the work of Martin Carlin. The experimental, trial-and-error aspect of their assembly and the spontaneity of some of their specific incompletions reveal his creative process, suggesting that they could have served as prototype models. Finally, like Carlin's work, this pair of sellettes is the fruit of the major influence of merchant-merchants, and of the more discreet influence of the Greek style of the 1760s, the foundation of all neoclassical design.


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