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RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
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RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
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A very fine Empire gilt bronze mounted mahogany guéridon attributed to Bernard Molitor with superb mounts attributed to Pierre-Philippe Thomire, the original circular grey marble top above a frieze mounted with a beaded border on three rectangular tapering supports each headed by a beautiful Egyptian style female head and bust with applied serpentine-shaped mounts below and palmettes above lion paw feet on a concave-sided triangular plinth with central vase-shaped finial on bun feet Paris, date circa 1810 Height 77 cm, diameter of top 97 cm. Literature: Ulrich Leben, Molitor, Ebéniste from the Ancien Régime to the Bourbon Restoration”, 1992, p. 165, pl. 176, cat. no. 111, illustrating a gilt bronze mounted mahogany guéridon attributed to Molitor circa 1809-12 of a very similar style and shape with circular marble top, straight rectangular supports and a concave-sided triangular plinth, which was supplied to King Jérôme at Kassel now in Schloss Bad Homburg von der Höhe, Hauptverwaltung. And p. 198, cat. no. 112, illustrating another very similar gilt bronze mounted mahogany guéridon attributed to Molitor circa 1809-12 with columnar supports and a mounted tazza-shaped finial on the plinth, supplied to King Jérôme, now Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, Kassel. This very fine guéridon includes elements that are distinctive to the work of the renowned German born ébéniste Bernard Molitor (1755-1833), notably its overall shape and monumental proportions as well as the use of fine quality gilt bronze mounts. Furthermore Molitor often favoured the combination of Egyptian female capitals above tapering supports terminated by gilt lion paw feet. Since Molitor rarely stamped his work and certainly none of his guéridons from the Empire period bear any stamp these pieces can only be attributed. Even those supplied between 1808 and 1812 to the Imperial Garde-Meuble for Napoleon’s brother Jérôme, remained unstamped and thus are only attributed to the maker by his biographer Ulrich Leben. The latter commission to furnish the King of Westphalia’s residences at Kassel was a prestigious order and included a number of pieces from Molitor as well as other Parisian makers. As noted above (see literature) the order included two guéridons, which were very similar in design to the present work. As here, both have superb gilt bronze mounts though differ in individual detail. Leben notes the difficultly in linking Molitor’s mounts to a specific fondeur but in relation to the furniture supplied by him to King Jérôme one can cite Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843) as well as Claude Galle (1759-1815). Molitor took great care in choosing the best quality mounts, which not only combined great design and fine detail but a meticulous degree of finish. In terms of style and quality the present mounts can be attributed to Thomire who also designed and probably supplied earlier mounts to Molitor for instance for two ebony and Japanese lacquer bonheurs-du-jour, 1797-1802 (ibid, p. 189, cat. no. 66A and B). Like so many artists of the period Molitor was influenced by the Egyptian style and in particular ornamented his work with gilt bronze Egyptian busts, palmettes and snake motifs, the latter evident in the caduceus-shaped mounts below the capitals. A number of other pieces by or attributed to Molitor feature female Egyptian capitals though none are of the exact same design as here for instance one can cite a Consulate period mahogany commode (illustrated ibid, p. 42, pl. 28, cat. no. 31) which has a pair of similar Egyptian female capitals (above tapering rectangular supports and lion paw feet) though their headdresses are more distinctly striated as is again the case on one of his Empire console tables made for Madame Mére, now at Château la Malmaison (illustrated ibid, p. 118, cat. no. 87), which again has Egyptian female capitals on rectangular tapering supports above lion paw feet. |