Selected for rarity, quality and provenance: furniture, decorative arts and clocks from three dealing dynasties

‘What people collect and what they surround themselves with at home is endlessly fascinating. Filling your interiors with pieces that reflect your personality and interests is what makes a house a home,’ says Amelia Walker, Head of Private & Iconic Collections at Christie’s in London. ‘Mixing eclectic works of art together spanning a range of periods, artistic movements, materials and styles creates a layered appearance, which delights the eye and sparks intrigue.’

Offered in Three Dealing Dynasties: London, Paris, Geneva on 23 May 2024 at Christie’s in London are nearly 250 rare and important works of art crossing cultures, continents and kings from three eminent dealers based in London, Paris and Geneva.

‘The advice and seal of approval of each of these dealers and their forebears has long been sought by international institutions, collectors and decorators,’ says Walker. ‘Works of art that they have handled have graced many illustrious collections around the world, including the British Museum, the Getty, the Met and the Louvre.’

The sale includes a colourful menagerie of Chinese and Japanese animals and birds, as well as furniture, decorative arts and clocks by some of the most celebrated European craftsmen of the late 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries, among them André-Charles Boulle, Jean-Henri Riesener and Etienne Levasseur.

Each piece has been carefully selected for its rarity, quality and provenance, encompassing French royalty, European nobility and celebrated art patrons and collectors such as Baron Gustave de Rothschild and Augustin Blondel de Gagny. ‘Many of these works of art are items that these dealers and their families have lived with for many years at home,’ adds the specialist.

The Chinese and Japanese animals and birds presented in the sale, executed in porcelain, bronze, cloisonné enamel and lacquer, include some of the rarest examples of their types. Such works have been collected by French and British royalty, as well as distinguished families, since the 17th century — such as Marie-Antoinette, who owned a model of a chicken in Japanese lacquer comparable to the charming ‘hen and chick’ box included in the sale.

During the 19th and 20th centuries, their appeal spread across the Atlantic, where great American collectors including the Rockefellers, Astors and Vanderbilts displayed them on beautiful French and English furniture. Today, they remain highly sought-after by collectors around the world, because, says Walker, ‘they speak to the incredible skill as well as the imagination of those who created them — it is remarkable that these fragile pieces survived not only their voyages from Asia centuries ago, but also their varied and interesting journeys since then’.

By way of example, Walker cites a porcelain elephant decorated in famille verte enamels, dating from the Kangxi period (1662-1722). ‘Porcelain models of elephants in the 18th century are more typically decorated in famille rose enamels and date from the Qianlong period [1736-1795], which makes this an usual and rare example,’ she says. ‘The exquisitely decorated saddle rug, with geometric design and stylised flowers, exemplifies the skill and ingenuity of the craftsman.’

Other animal-themed works offered for sale include two cloisonné enamel ‘Twin Fish’ vases from the Qianlong-Jiaqing period (1736-1820), a cloisonné enamel and gilt-bronze duck censer and a large pair of cloisonné enamel roosters, with feathers naturalistically detailed in contrasting tones of yellow, red and blue.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, many Chinese and Japanese ‘export’ works of art were embellished, upon their arrival in Europe, with mounts in silver, gold, bronze and ormolu. These innovative creations, which emerged from the workshops of the greatest bronziers and marchands-merciers in Paris, catered to the extravagant tastes of the European elite.

Among the ormolu-mounted Asian objects offered for sale are a pair of Louis XVI Japanese Imari porcelain brûle-parfums, featuring floral sprays and birds of paradise, and a pair of Louis XVI candelabra featuring turquoise and aubergine parrots made from Kangxi porcelain. The latter were probably supplied by Dominique Daguerre, a celebrated marchand-mercier who sourced works of art for Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

As for the lacquered works in the sale, highlights include a Japanese black and gold lacquer panel depicting the Palace of Versailles. Attributed to the Sasaya workshop in Nagasaki, Japan, it was commissioned around 1788 by a director of the Dutch East India Company. The design, says Walker, is based on an earlier engraving by the German-born draughtsman Jan Caspar Philips. ‘It beautifully encapsulates the cultural exchange between East and West in the 18th century,’ she says.

The French furniture and decorative arts in the sale span the reign of Louis XIV in the late 17th and early 18th century to the Napoleonic Empire in the early 19th century. ‘Many of these lots have fantastic provenance, which underlines the timeless appeal and enduring elegance of the French decorative arts,’ says the specialist. ‘Major collecting dynasties including the Rothschilds, as well as celebrated fashion designers such as Karl Lagerfeld and Hubert de Givenchy, all shared an appreciation for quality and exquisite craftsmanship synonymous with works of art from this period.’

Highlights include a Louis XV giltwood console table from around 1740, which closely relates to one formerly in the collection of Hubert de Givenchy, and a Louis XV bureau à cylindre by Roger van der Cruse, featuring lozenge parquetry and finely chased ormolu mounts. One of only two known examples, it was formerly in the collection of Baroness Burton, a leading English collector of porcelain and French furniture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Also of note is a Louis XVI ormolu-mounted tulipwood and amaranth marquetry occasional table attributed to Jean-Henri Riesener. This ingenious table can be fully dismantled and was likely commissioned for use when travelling, almost certainly for a member of the French Royal family circa 1775. It later reappeared in the 19th century in the celebrated collection of Charles Hedworth Mills, 4th Baron Hillingdon.

Of the 27 clocks presented in the sale, Walker is particularly taken with a statuesque ormolu mantel clock ‘à la Geoffrin’, with movement by Martin, so named after the model created in 1754 by the sculptor Laurent Guiard for Madame Geoffrin (1699-1777). Geoffrin hosted one of most important literary salons of the 18th century in Paris on the rue Saint-Honoré.

Another fascinating example, formerly in the collection of Geoffrey Gilmour — an Englishman in Paris in the mid-20th century — is the Louis XIV ormolu-mounted brass and tortoiseshell-inlaid ‘Boulle’ marquetry and ebony table clock, with movement by Jacques Thuret and case by André-Charles Boulle and his sons.Other works attributed to Boulle include a pair of Louis XIV ormolu single-branch wall-lights and a pair of Louis XIV ormolu chenets dating from the late 17th or early 18th century.

Among the other notable treasures coming to auction are a recently rediscovered Louis XVI porphyry vase with neoclassical ormolu mounts, attributed to Pierre Gouthière, from around 1775-80; a late Louis XV ormolu-mounted Breccia marble urn, circa 1770, which was listed in the posthumous sale of the celebrated collector Augustin Blondel de Gagny; and a set of four ormolu-mounted Meissen porcelain allegorical figures formerly in the collection of Baron Gustave de Rothschild.

On view at Christie’s in London until 22 May 2024, Three Dealing Dynasties: London, Paris, Geneva brings together works of art collected by the scions of three dealing dynasties, each in business at the centre of the international art market for almost a century. The sale takes place on 23 May