MARQUISE ROYALE DITE `TÊTE À TÊTE` D`ÉPOQUE LOUIS XVI

Lot 21
20.11.2024 16:00UTC +01:00
Classic
Vendu
€ 75 600
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Lieu de l'événementFrance, Paris
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ID 1329879
Lot 21 | MARQUISE ROYALE DITE 'TÊTE À TÊTE' D'ÉPOQUE LOUIS XVI
Valeur estimée
€ 80 000 – 120 000
MARQUISE ROYALE DITE 'TÊTE À TÊTE' D'ÉPOQUE LOUIS XVI
PAR JEAN-BAPTISTE CLAUDE SENÉ, LA SCULPTURE PAR LOUIS-ALEXANDRE REGNIER, LA DORURE PAR LOUIS-FRANCOIS CHATARD, LIVRÉE POUR MADAME ÉLISABETH AU CHÂTEAU DE MONTREUIL, 1789
En hêtre mouluré, sculpté et doré, le dossier à décor de feuilles de chêne, les accotoirs garnis de manchettes rembourrées, les consoles détachées en balustre et appliquées de larges feuilles d'acanthe, la ceinture ceintrée appliquée de fleurettes enrubannées, sur des pieds fuselés à cannelures torsadées, la couverture de soie bleue à motif floral, portant une trace d'étiquette sous la ceinture arrière correspondant à une étiquette désormais détachée en partie illisible du 'GARDE-MEUBLE DU ROI.' et mentionnant 'CHATARD, Peintre & Doreur / Faubourg Montmartre, / A PARIS / Pour M' ; on y joint une marquise au modèle, commandée auprès de la Maison Jansen, XXe siècle
H. 100 cm. (39x in.) ; L. 127 cm. (50 in.) ; P. 68 cm. (26r in.)
Jean-Baptiste-Claude Sené, reçu maître en 1769.




Provenance

Livrée pour le salon de compagnie de Madame Elisabeth (1764-1794) pour le château de Montreuil le 1er avril 1789 ;
Mise sous scellés jusqu’en novembre 1793 ;
Ventes Révolutionnaires, Versailles, acquise par les tapissiers Huart l’ainé et Marceau.
Collection privée



Literature

B. Pallot, Le Mobilier du Musée du Louvre, tome II, Dijon, 1993, p 178-179
P. Verlet, Le Mobilier Royal Français, tome III, Rome, 1994, pp. 252-254
Cat. exp. Madame Elisabeth, une princesse au destin tragique, 1764-1794, Château de Versailles, Milan, 2013, pp. 110-113



Further details

A ROYAL LOUIS XVI GILT BEECHWOOD MARQUISE BY JEAN-BAPTISTE-CLAUDE SENÉ, LOUIS-ALEXANDRE REGNIER AND LOUIS-FRANCOIS CHATARD, DELIVERED FOR MADAME ELISABETH, FOR MONTREUIL, 1789

This sofa was made by one of the greatest carpenters of the reign of Louis XVI, Jean-Baptiste-Claude Séné (October 24, 1747 - February 10, 1803). Awarded the title of Master on May 10, 1769, Séné became a supplier to the Garde-Meuble royal in 1785. In 1789, he received an order from Madame Elisabeth (1764-1794), sister of King Louis XVI, for a set of furniture for her Château de Montreuil, including this sofa. Designed by Séné, sculpted by Alexandre Regnier and gilded by Louis-François Chatard, this suite, mentioned in each of their memoirs, includes six bergères, four armchairs, six small “tête à tête” sofas, a fire screen, eight chairs, four voyeuses, a folding screen and another sofa.

This furniture suite decorates the Salon de Compagnie, the most refined room in the château, rivalling the luxury of Marie-Antoinette's furniture at Versailles. The ornamental vocabulary of this suite is very similar to that of the furniture Jean-Baptiste-Claude Séné produced for Versailles between 1787 and 1788.

Similarly, the original cover, in lampas with a blue background and white and gray decoration, originally commissioned in 1785 for Louis XVI's Salon des jeux in Fontainebleau, was reproduced for the furniture in Marie-Antoinette's Salon in the Tuileries. The Queen, who was also very close to Madame Elisabeth, wrote of her: “My sister Elisabeth is a charming child, who has intelligence, character and much grace”. When Louis XVI bought the Château de Montreuil for his sister Elisabeth in 1783, he left it to Marie Antoinette to surprise her. She declared, “Sister, you are in your own house: this is your Trianon”.

Madame Elisabeth was seventeen at the time, and it was planned to refurnish the château in 1789, for her twenty-fifth birthday, the age of her majority. The Crown's usual suppliers were called in to help, including cabinetmakers Guillaume Benneman and Jacques Bircklé, as well as two great carpenters: Jean-Baptiste Boulard and Jean-Baptiste Séné, who was commissioned to furnish the château's main reception rooms and the oldest building on the estate, “La petite maison détachée”. Séné was paid 1535 livres out of a total of 7080 livres, and the suite was estimated at 32,523 livres in 1790, in L'Etat d'Estimation des Meubles de la Maison de Madame Elisabeth à Montreuil arrêté le 22 septembre 1790.

This sofa, and more broadly, this ensemble of furniture, bears witness to the Revolution and Madame Elisabeth's tragic fate. In fact, it was one of the last orders placed by the Garde-Meuble royal before the events of the Revolution. The king's sister was in Montreuil at the time of the Parisians' march to Versailles on October 6, 1789; she then joined the royal family in the Tuileries, following them as they fled to Varenne in 1791. She returned to the Tuileries with them one last time, before being imprisoned in the Temple on August 10, 1792, and guillotined on May 10, 1794. In 1792, this sofa was placed under seal at the Château de Montreuil, which was lifted the following year to allow the sale of her furniture, which was then entirely dispersed.

Most of the pieces in this suite have now been found and are housed in national museums: two voyeuses are in the Musée Nissim de Camondo, one in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, a bergère is in the Louvre, another in the Château de Versailles, while a third was sold at Christie's in London on December 12, 2002, lot 105, and a pair of voyeuses at Sotheby's in London on July 3, 2013.

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