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RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
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RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
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A very impressive and rare Louis XVI gilt bronze mounted fleur de pêcher marble coupe, the marble body with stepped splayed rim and tapering body with gadrooning to the lower part, mounted on the underside by a gilt bronze pendant of berries, the whole on four stiff-leaf wrapped monopodia supports each headed by a long horned ram’s head terminating in a cloven hoof, on a square stepped plinth with a foliate wrapped reeded border and central foliate finial French, date circa 1775 Height 28 cm, diameter 23 cm. This rare coupe, made of the most beautifully coloured and rare fleur de pêcher marble is related to a number of luxury items such as urns, vases and perfume burners, made in Paris during the later quarter of the eighteenth century, which likewise featured rams’ heads and cloven hoof supports. In particular its design may have been inspired by a painting by Joseph-Marie Vien shown at the Paris Salon of 1763 and engraved as La Vertueuse Athénienne by Charles-François Flipart 1765, which featured a classical female standing beside an athénienne with rams’ heads and cloven hoof tripod supports as well as a pineapple finial on the base. The latter, probably as here, may have been the inspiration for a pair of candelabra with similar tripod supports and likewise with a very similar gilt bronze pendant of berries below the main body, circa 1765-70, in the Wallace Collection London (illustrated and described in Peter Hughes, “The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Furniture”, 1996, vol. III, pp. 1216-1219, no. 238 (F154-5). Among other related works in the Wallace Collection, likewise with rams’ heads and hooves, is a pair of perfume burners of circa 1780-5 (ibid. pp. 1345-8, no. 276, (F293-4)), formerly attributed to Pierre Gouthière but discounted by P. Hughes. Rams were among the repertoire of Neo-classical motifs inspired by Antiquity and thus appeared adorning a number of eighteenth century objets d’art, not only those made from marble or of gilt or gilt and patinated bronze but also porcelain, for instance ram’s head handles adorn a pair of beau bleu Sèvres vases, circa 1768 in the J. P. Getty Museum, California as well as another pair of Sèvres vases, circa 1777 in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. The rare fleur de pêcher marble came from Italy and according to Jacques Dubarry de Lassale in “Identifying Marble”, 1999/2000 was quarried from the Carrara Basin, Serravezza. Fleur de pêcher marble came from the same deposits as violet breccia and also known as peach tree flower or fior di pesco derived its name from its structure that evoke the flowers of the peach tree. It was considered among the finest materials for both architectural use as well as for smaller scale objects and because of the beauty of its colour was ideal for ornate pillars, mantelpieces as well as for tops for commodes, consoles and other furniture. A very ornate unattributed Louis XV commode, circa 1730 from the collection of Mme Louis Burat in the Musée du Louvre is decorated with a serpentine shaped fleur de pêcher marble top. |