A MATCHED PAIR OF LOUIS XIV ORMOLU AND BLUE STAINED HORN WALL BRACKETS

A MATCHED PAIR OF LOUIS XIV ORMOLU AND BLUE STAINED HORN WALL BRACKETS, CONSOLES D'APPLIQUE

AFTER THE MODEL BY ANDRE-CHARLES BOULLE, C.1700-1720 AND LATER

each with a later shaped velvet top above a concave frieze cast with Vitruvian scrolls, supported by a pair of leaf and scroll brackets flanking an oval portrait medallion of a classical lady, above an applique of ribbon tied trophies symbolising love and war, formerly brackets for clocks, alterations (2)

36.5 x 45cm and 37 x 45cm

Provenance

Alfred de Rothschild (1842-1918) the South Drawing Room / Lawrence Room, Halton House, Buckinghamshire

Lionel de Rothschild (1882-1942)

Edmund de Rothschild (1916-2009)

The Trustees of Exbury House

Literature

Rothschild Archive, London, Manuscript: 000/174/C/3, Christie, Manson & Woods Probate Valuation of 'The Estate of Alfred C. de Rothschild, Esq. C.V.O. Deceased, Halton House Tring', 1918. Listed as 'A pair of ormolu brackets of Louis XIV design with blue enamel backs in imitation lapis lazuli, £35.0.0.'

Catalogue Note

Literature

These wonderful consoles d'applique graced the South Drawing Room at Halton House. They supported two magnificent German silvver and enamel sculptures of St, George and the Dragon and Diana and a stag (visible in the black and white photograph). The design of the consoles reflects the ideas of Jean Berain (1640-1711) who was a draughtsman and designer, painter and engraver of ornament and the artistic force behind the Royal Office of the Menu-Plaisirs du Roi. The volute brackets on our consoled are reminiscent of a design for a brackket seen on an engaving 'Designs for Brackets with Silverwork', a cipt can be found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession no. 2012.136.11. Jean Berain supplied designs for Andre-Charles Boulle, and Boulle's lodgings and workshop were close to Berain's. The popularity of such console d'applique in the early 18th century can be seen by the appearance of multiple brackets on the frontispiece of Boulle's designs in Nouveaux deisseins de meubles et ouvrages de bronze et de marqueterie inventes et graves par Andre-Charles Boulle, published by Pierre-Jean Mariette (1694-1774).

For an identical console supporting a clock by Louis Mynuel, the case by Andre-Charles Boulle, see Tardy (publisher), La Pendule Francaise, 1ere partie, p.141, ill.2.

See also a related pair of consoles d'applique attributed to Andre-Charles Boulle, Christie's, Hubert De Givenchy -Collectionneur: Chefs-d'oeuvre - Masterpieces, 14th June 2022, lot 26, which sold for EUR 138,600. For other related examples, see the Wallace Collection, London, inv.381, 382 and Sotheby's Monaco, 4th March 1989, lot 185.