拍品专文
COFFRE GOLE
In the inventory after the death of the ébéniste Pierre Gole, dated 1685, 'une cassette en cabinet' is recorded in his shop. This description corresponds exactly to what is now referred to as a coffer-on-stand. The shape of this cabinet derives probably from the 'coffres ronds de verny de la Chine' described in the inventory of the garde-meuble de la Couronne, which were imported in wide quantities to Europe.
The use of this particular type of coffer is more difficult to determine. Havard believes that the coffer was moved morning and evening from its stand in order to be placed on the master's bed and was frequently covered with velvet, occasionally with Savonnerie (as with the coffer in the Musée du Louvre) and, from 1685, in tortoiseshell.
There are only two other coffers of this same model. One, almost certainly originally with a stand, is now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu (84.DA.971). With an oak frame, this coffer has nevertheless a completely different marquetry which has been attributed to André-Charles Boulle on stylistic grounds. The other, with parcel-gilt caryatid stand, was offered at Franco Semenzato, Venice, 18 July 1993, lot 52 ( information gratefully received from Jeffrey Weaver, Esq., Assistant Curator of Decorative Arts at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, California)
The shape of the stand stylistically dates our coffer between 1660 and 1670, which coincides with Gole's first commissions for the Crown, after having worked for Cardinal Mazarin.
Inlaid in trompe l'oeil after the manner of Dutch paintings, this ebony coffer is a masterpiece of the ébéniste marqueteur's craft and a particularly fine example of the technique of creating a painterly mosaique was carried to such perfection at Louis XIV's Royal Gobelins Manufactory under the direction of Pierre Gole (d. 1684).
The domed lid displays a festive flower-vase, of krater form, whose husk-wreathed and laurel-festooned plinth is accompanied by posies emerging from flowered and voluted Roman-acanthus, which serves as its pedestal. Ivory petals, such as those of the jasmine flower, add to the rich polychromy of exotic woods, and feature in posies in the border-frame, where they emerge from the acanthus volutes, tied by foliage at the corners. The sides are similarly embellished with acanthus-calyx serving for a vase, while a triumphal trophy displayed on the facade comprises flower-filled cornucopiae or horns-of-plenty emerging from the garland wreathing the brass-escutcheon. Its stretcher-tied stand, of triumphal-arch form, is decorated en suite with flowered-lambrequins draping the paired and Tuscan-capitaled columns, whose Solomonic-twist shafts rise from flower-inlaid drums.
The columns correspond to those of a table, attributed to Gole, which may have been purchased around 1660 by John Seymour, 4th Duke of Somerset (C. Cator, 'Haupt at Petworth', Furniture History Society Journal, 1993, p. 73, fig. 1). The Petworth table top is likewise decorated with an acanthus-framed vase, which derives in part from an ornamental engraving by Paul Androuet du Cerceau that was published in the 1650s as Divers Ornemens de feuillages en forme de Panneaux a l'Usage de Ceux qui exercent le Dessin. While it can be compared to Gole's design of 1688 for the floor of the Cabinet doré at Versailles in 'parquet de Marqueterie', its ornament corresponds closely to Savonnerie carpets woven around 1660 (T.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer, 'Pierre Gole, ébéniste du roi Louis XIV', Burlington Magazine, June 1980, p. 387, fig. 10 and P. Verlet, The Savonnerie, It's History; The Waddesdon Collection, London, 1982, fig. 107)
In the inventory after the death of the ébéniste Pierre Gole, dated 1685, 'une cassette en cabinet' is recorded in his shop. This description corresponds exactly to what is now referred to as a coffer-on-stand. The shape of this cabinet derives probably from the 'coffres ronds de verny de la Chine' described in the inventory of the garde-meuble de la Couronne, which were imported in wide quantities to Europe.
The use of this particular type of coffer is more difficult to determine. Havard believes that the coffer was moved morning and evening from its stand in order to be placed on the master's bed and was frequently covered with velvet, occasionally with Savonnerie (as with the coffer in the Musée du Louvre) and, from 1685, in tortoiseshell.
There are only two other coffers of this same model. One, almost certainly originally with a stand, is now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu (84.DA.971). With an oak frame, this coffer has nevertheless a completely different marquetry which has been attributed to André-Charles Boulle on stylistic grounds. The other, with parcel-gilt caryatid stand, was offered at Franco Semenzato, Venice, 18 July 1993, lot 52 ( information gratefully received from Jeffrey Weaver, Esq., Assistant Curator of Decorative Arts at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, California)
The shape of the stand stylistically dates our coffer between 1660 and 1670, which coincides with Gole's first commissions for the Crown, after having worked for Cardinal Mazarin.
Inlaid in trompe l'oeil after the manner of Dutch paintings, this ebony coffer is a masterpiece of the ébéniste marqueteur's craft and a particularly fine example of the technique of creating a painterly mosaique was carried to such perfection at Louis XIV's Royal Gobelins Manufactory under the direction of Pierre Gole (d. 1684).
The domed lid displays a festive flower-vase, of krater form, whose husk-wreathed and laurel-festooned plinth is accompanied by posies emerging from flowered and voluted Roman-acanthus, which serves as its pedestal. Ivory petals, such as those of the jasmine flower, add to the rich polychromy of exotic woods, and feature in posies in the border-frame, where they emerge from the acanthus volutes, tied by foliage at the corners. The sides are similarly embellished with acanthus-calyx serving for a vase, while a triumphal trophy displayed on the facade comprises flower-filled cornucopiae or horns-of-plenty emerging from the garland wreathing the brass-escutcheon. Its stretcher-tied stand, of triumphal-arch form, is decorated en suite with flowered-lambrequins draping the paired and Tuscan-capitaled columns, whose Solomonic-twist shafts rise from flower-inlaid drums.
The columns correspond to those of a table, attributed to Gole, which may have been purchased around 1660 by John Seymour, 4th Duke of Somerset (C. Cator, 'Haupt at Petworth', Furniture History Society Journal, 1993, p. 73, fig. 1). The Petworth table top is likewise decorated with an acanthus-framed vase, which derives in part from an ornamental engraving by Paul Androuet du Cerceau that was published in the 1650s as Divers Ornemens de feuillages en forme de Panneaux a l'Usage de Ceux qui exercent le Dessin. While it can be compared to Gole's design of 1688 for the floor of the Cabinet doré at Versailles in 'parquet de Marqueterie', its ornament corresponds closely to Savonnerie carpets woven around 1660 (T.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer, 'Pierre Gole, ébéniste du roi Louis XIV', Burlington Magazine, June 1980, p. 387, fig. 10 and P. Verlet, The Savonnerie, It's History; The Waddesdon Collection, London, 1982, fig. 107)