Page 102 - Pascal Izarn catalogue 2024
P. 102
A PAIR OF LARGE RESTAURATION PATINATED BRONZE
CAMPANA VASES – CIRCA 1815-1830
Height: 48.5 cm. (19 in.) Diameter of neck: 38 cm. (15 in.) Width and depth of base: 20 cm. (7 ¾ in.)
Reduced scale versions following the two-handled form of the Medici Vase (Florence, Uffizi). One with
a relief of a Bacchic Procession after the Borghese Vase (Paris, Louvre), the other with a relief of the
Sacrifice of Iphigenia after the Medici Vase.
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique, New Haven and London, 1981 pp. 314-316, figs. 166-
167, and p. 343.
Ever since their separate rediscoveries in 16th Century Rome, the so-called Medici and Borghese
Vases have been the most admired of antique vases. They could be compared through prints, and copies of them were often arranged as companions, with the
two-handled krater form of the Medici Vase usually adopted in the interests of symmetry (Haskell and Penny, op. cit., p. 315).
A LATE LOUIS XV GILT BRONZE AND VERT ANTIQUE MARBLE VASE
CLOCK A CERCLES TOURNANTS, SIGNED COURIEULT A PARIS –
CIRCA 1770
The case by Jean-Baptiste Gaulier, maître fondeur in 1756
Gabriel Courieult, maître on 3 September 1767
Height: 40.5 cm. (16 in.) Width: 17.5 cm. (7 in.) Depth: 17.5 cm. (7 in.)
PROVENANCE
Vassy & Jalenques, Clermont-Ferrand, 18 June 2005, lot 40
Madame Bert
LITERATURE
G. and A. Wannenes, Les plus belles pendules Françaises: de Louis XIV à l’Empire = The finest French pendulum-
clocks: from Louis XIV to the Empire, Florence, 2013, p. 259 (ill.)
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
An identical vert Antique marble clock was sold from the Riahi Collection, Christie’s New York, 2 November 2000, lot 6.
A similar unsigned clock with oval painted copper plates representing genre scenes now in the musée du Louvre and formerly belonging to the Comte d’Orsay
in his hôtel particulier on the rue de Varenne is illustrated in D. Alcouffe et al., Les bronzes d’ameublement du Louvre, Paris, 2004, p. 136, no. 63.
Another with Sèvres porcelain plates delivered by the marchand-mercier Poirier to Madame du Barry on 18 November 1768 is published in S. Eriksen, Early
Neo-Classicism in France, London, 1974, pp. 347-348, no. 197 (private collection).
JEAN-BAPTISTE GAULIER, BRONZIER
Jean-Baptiste Gaulier (sometimes Gautier) was born in 1734, the son of an employee of the Ormesson family and was apprenticed in 1747 to the maître
fondeur Louis Mathieu Chambon,1 a former apprentice of Jacques Caffieri (1678-1755).2 He became a maître fondeur in Paris in 1756 and married in 1759 in
the presence of Philippe Caffieri (1714-1774), a family friend3 with whom he lived on rue Princesse. It was perhaps with the Caffieris that he developed a taste
for novelty, as evidenced by this vase clock, the model of which seems to date back to 1768,4 when he was elected juror of his community for two years.
He was among the creditors of the founder Étienne Forestier (d. 1768).5 We find him in 1769 as a creditor to the estate of the marchand-mercier Henri Lebrun,6
then with Antoine Magnien, another marchand-mercier, who established a business for selling gilt bronzes.7 The overly innovative company went bankrupt in
1777, dragging Gaulier down with it. He never recovered and two years later put his business up for sale, composed of “andirons, wall lights, candelabra, clock
and cartel clock cases representing mythological subjects (sujets de la fable)”.8
Christian BAULEZ
Conservateur général honoraire du Patrimoine
1 A.N., M.C., ET/LXXXV/564, patent of 11 July 1747.
2 A.N., M.C., ET/LXXXV/459, patent of 3 August 1736.
3 A.N., M.C., ET/XCI/966, contract of 25 March 1759.
4 J.-D. Augarde, Les ouvriers du Temps, Geneva, 1996, p. 137 and 199.
5 A.N., M.C., ET/XIV/558, 29 April 1777.
6 A.N., Y 15468, scellés of 4 July 1769.
7 C. Baulez, ‘Le mobilier du Palais Bourbon’, in Le Palais Bourbon, sa place, Délégation à l’action artistique de la Ville de Paris, F. Magny (ed.), 1987, pp. 44-57.
8 Petites affiches, annonces et avis divers, 25 July 1779, p. 1643, no. 206.
88
CAMPANA VASES – CIRCA 1815-1830
Height: 48.5 cm. (19 in.) Diameter of neck: 38 cm. (15 in.) Width and depth of base: 20 cm. (7 ¾ in.)
Reduced scale versions following the two-handled form of the Medici Vase (Florence, Uffizi). One with
a relief of a Bacchic Procession after the Borghese Vase (Paris, Louvre), the other with a relief of the
Sacrifice of Iphigenia after the Medici Vase.
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique, New Haven and London, 1981 pp. 314-316, figs. 166-
167, and p. 343.
Ever since their separate rediscoveries in 16th Century Rome, the so-called Medici and Borghese
Vases have been the most admired of antique vases. They could be compared through prints, and copies of them were often arranged as companions, with the
two-handled krater form of the Medici Vase usually adopted in the interests of symmetry (Haskell and Penny, op. cit., p. 315).
A LATE LOUIS XV GILT BRONZE AND VERT ANTIQUE MARBLE VASE
CLOCK A CERCLES TOURNANTS, SIGNED COURIEULT A PARIS –
CIRCA 1770
The case by Jean-Baptiste Gaulier, maître fondeur in 1756
Gabriel Courieult, maître on 3 September 1767
Height: 40.5 cm. (16 in.) Width: 17.5 cm. (7 in.) Depth: 17.5 cm. (7 in.)
PROVENANCE
Vassy & Jalenques, Clermont-Ferrand, 18 June 2005, lot 40
Madame Bert
LITERATURE
G. and A. Wannenes, Les plus belles pendules Françaises: de Louis XIV à l’Empire = The finest French pendulum-
clocks: from Louis XIV to the Empire, Florence, 2013, p. 259 (ill.)
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
An identical vert Antique marble clock was sold from the Riahi Collection, Christie’s New York, 2 November 2000, lot 6.
A similar unsigned clock with oval painted copper plates representing genre scenes now in the musée du Louvre and formerly belonging to the Comte d’Orsay
in his hôtel particulier on the rue de Varenne is illustrated in D. Alcouffe et al., Les bronzes d’ameublement du Louvre, Paris, 2004, p. 136, no. 63.
Another with Sèvres porcelain plates delivered by the marchand-mercier Poirier to Madame du Barry on 18 November 1768 is published in S. Eriksen, Early
Neo-Classicism in France, London, 1974, pp. 347-348, no. 197 (private collection).
JEAN-BAPTISTE GAULIER, BRONZIER
Jean-Baptiste Gaulier (sometimes Gautier) was born in 1734, the son of an employee of the Ormesson family and was apprenticed in 1747 to the maître
fondeur Louis Mathieu Chambon,1 a former apprentice of Jacques Caffieri (1678-1755).2 He became a maître fondeur in Paris in 1756 and married in 1759 in
the presence of Philippe Caffieri (1714-1774), a family friend3 with whom he lived on rue Princesse. It was perhaps with the Caffieris that he developed a taste
for novelty, as evidenced by this vase clock, the model of which seems to date back to 1768,4 when he was elected juror of his community for two years.
He was among the creditors of the founder Étienne Forestier (d. 1768).5 We find him in 1769 as a creditor to the estate of the marchand-mercier Henri Lebrun,6
then with Antoine Magnien, another marchand-mercier, who established a business for selling gilt bronzes.7 The overly innovative company went bankrupt in
1777, dragging Gaulier down with it. He never recovered and two years later put his business up for sale, composed of “andirons, wall lights, candelabra, clock
and cartel clock cases representing mythological subjects (sujets de la fable)”.8
Christian BAULEZ
Conservateur général honoraire du Patrimoine
1 A.N., M.C., ET/LXXXV/564, patent of 11 July 1747.
2 A.N., M.C., ET/LXXXV/459, patent of 3 August 1736.
3 A.N., M.C., ET/XCI/966, contract of 25 March 1759.
4 J.-D. Augarde, Les ouvriers du Temps, Geneva, 1996, p. 137 and 199.
5 A.N., M.C., ET/XIV/558, 29 April 1777.
6 A.N., Y 15468, scellés of 4 July 1769.
7 C. Baulez, ‘Le mobilier du Palais Bourbon’, in Le Palais Bourbon, sa place, Délégation à l’action artistique de la Ville de Paris, F. Magny (ed.), 1987, pp. 44-57.
8 Petites affiches, annonces et avis divers, 25 July 1779, p. 1643, no. 206.
88
