Balenciaga Haute Couture, 1962. Tailleur habillé en shantung brun Van Dyck, blouse brodée par la Maison Rébé, deux versions longue ou courte. Estimation 1,500 — 2,000 €. Photo: Sotheby"s.

Balenciaga Haute Couture, 1961. Ensemble du soir en organza amarante, veste recouverte de tulle brodé de raphia et feuilles de rhodoïd par la Maison Lesage. Estimation 1,500 — 2,500 €. Photo: Sotheby"s.

Discovered near Launde Abbey – Home of Thomas Cromwell’s Son. Expected to fetch £20,000-30,000 at auction. On public exhibition in London prior to sale on 9 July. Photo: Sotheby's.

LONDON.- An English, late fifteenth-century love or marriage ring discovered in 2013 with a metal detector near Launde Abbey, an Elizabethan manor house once home to Thomas Cromwell’s son, will be offered for auction by Sotheby’s in London on 9 July 2015 in a sale of Old Master Sculpture & Works of Art. Estimated at £20,000-30,000, the ring is an early and exceptionally lavish example of its kind, on which the bond between husband and wife is symbolised by two different gems, a point-cut diamond and a rounded ruby. The engraved sprigs on the partially enamelled shoulders of the ring are typical of a goldsmith’s work in fifteenth-century England. 

From the 12th century onwards, the site near Launde Abbey – situated in the valley of the river Chater in East Norton, Leicestershire – was occupied by a large and wealthy Augustinian Priory. Thomas Cromwell was so impressed by the building and the location that he presented it to himself after surveying it as part of the dissolution of the monasteries. His execution in 1540 prevented him from moving in. Instead his son Gregory and his wife Elizabeth Seymour, the sister of Henry VIII’s third wife Jane Seymour, took residence there. 

Erik Bijzet, Sotheby’s Old Master Sculpture & Works of Art specialist, comments: “The movement of wealthy patrons around a major monastery, the violence with which the rich institution must have taken for the Crown, and the importance of the subsequent inhabitants are all reasons for a ring of this significance to have been deposited in its vicinity.” 

Portrait équestre de François Ier du XVIIe siècle, d'après un original du XVIe siècle© BnF

BLOIS - En 2015, la France célébre les 500 ans de l’accession au trône de François Ier ainsi que l’anniversaire de la bataille de Marignan. La Ville de Blois et la Bibliothèque nationale de France se sont associées pour produire une des expositions majeures de cette année François Ier, la plus importante en dehors de Paris et de la région parisienne. Le commissariat général en a été confiéàÉlisabeth Latrémolière, conservateur en chef, directrice du Château Royal et des musées de Blois, et le commissariat scientifique, à Maxence Hermant, conservateur au département des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Matteo del Nassaro, François Ier en cuirasse, vers 1540 – Camée 780© BnF

Situé au coeur du Val de Loire, le Château Royal de Blois est un haut lieu d’art et d’histoire, visité par près de 300 000 personnes chaque année. Héritier d’unpassé royal prestigieux, il mène depuis plusieurs années une politique active de développement culturel et touristique, en direction de tous les publics, notamment à travers une programmation de grandes expositions sur la civilisation de la Renaissance. Résidence favorite de la Cour au XVIème siècle, c’est également dès 1515 le premier chantier entrepris par François Ier. Abritant la bibliothèque royale jusqu’en 1544 (date de son transfert à Fontainebleau), le Château ne pouvait donc manquer de participer à cet anniversaire en organisant une exposition d’envergure internationale.

Buste de François Ier© château royal de Blois photo F. Lauginie

Pour la première fois sont réunis au Château Royal de Blois les plus précieux des livres de François Ier, accompagnés d’une sélection d’objets d’art provenant eux aussi des collections royales. Sur les 140 pièces sélectionnées, près de 130 sont conservées à la Bibliothèque nationale de France, héritière de la bibliothèque des rois de France : livres manuscrits et imprimés, reliures précieuses, gravures et dessins, monnaies et médailles, objets d’art et bijoux. Les autres oeuvres proviennent de grands établissements culturels français comme le musée du Louvre ou d’une collection privée américaine.

Chambre de Marie de Médicis au château de Blois, aquarelle de Muller© Château royal de Blois - photo D. Lepissier.

Tout au long du parcours de l’exposition, les visiteurs peuvent admirer nombre de chefs-d’oeuvre rarement présentés au public en raison de leur fragilité et de leur préciosité. C’est du reste la première fois que l’on tente de reconstituer la bibliothèque de François Ier de façon aussi ambitieuse, ce qui ne manquera pas de susciter l’intérêt. Des pièces exceptionnelles sont présentés : les célèbres Grandes heures d’Anne de Bretagne enluminées par Jean Bourdichon ; les Heures de Louis de Laval peintes par Jean Colombe, considérées comme un des manuscrits les plus luxueux jamais réalisés avec près de 1 200 miniatures ; une des vingt reliures brodées de la Renaissance encore conservées au monde ; la Bible de Ro bert Estienne, imprimée en 1540, et dotée d’une très précieuse reliure marquée du F royal ; ou des Évangiles carolingiens, datant du IXème siècle mais reliés par la suite pour François Ier.

Mort et miracles de saint Jérôme de Louise de Savoie, mère de François Ier ; enluminés à Paris par Jean Pichore, vers 1509-1511© BnF

S’appuyant sur des recherches initiées il y a plusieurs années, cette exposition permet de jeter un regard nouveau sur les collections de livres de François Ier, entre Moyen Âge et Renaissance.

Le public découvre ainsi de quoi était composée la « librairie » royale, tant la bibliothèque personnelle de François Ier que la bibliothèque royale institutionnelle héritée de ses prédécesseurs, les types d’ouvrages qui s’y trouvaient, essentiellement des manuscrits, témoignant de la persistance du goût médiéval pour les grands formats luxueux des bibliothèques princières, mais aussi des incunables (ouvrages imprimés avant 1500), des imprimés témoins des recherches typographiques de la Renaissance et les différents types de reliures (en tissu, en cuir, à décor). La bibliothèque de François Ier, roi lettré, formée de textes grecs et latins, d’ouvrages techniques et pratiques, d’oeuvres littéraires et de livres de dévotion, illustre l’environnement culturel de la Renaissance, le
goût et l’éducation d’un prince.

Imitation de Jésus Christ ; enluminée par Robinet Testard pour Charles d'Angoulême, père de François Ier, vers 1488-1496© BnF

Une attention toute particulière est portée à la médiation de cette exposition, grâce à des visites et des dispositifs adaptés. Le numérique est également présent dans l’exposition, faisant un lien entre passé et présent. Trois bornes numériques permettent de feuilleter les ouvrages les plus importants, comme les Grandes heures d’Anne de Bretagne. Des flash codes placés sur les vitrines permettront de consulter sur Gallica, la bibliothèque en ligne de la BnF, les volumes numérisés en haute définition et en couleur. Ces liens peuvent être partagés sur les réseaux sociaux par les visiteurs.

Paraphrase d'Érasme sur l'Évangile selon saint Matthieu, 1539 ; enluminéà Paris par Noël Bellemare© BnF

Manuscrit, paraphrase d'Erasme© BnF

L’exposition est construite autour d’ensembles de livres ayant une même origine ou un même contexte d’acquisition, permettant au public d’en saisir la richesse et la complexité : l’héritage de la famille Angoulême (Jean d’Angoulême et Marguerite de Rohan, grands-parents de François, Charles d’Angoulême et Louise de Savoie, ses parents, et enfin le jeune François d’Angoulême luimême, futur François Ier) ; la bibliothèque royale de Blois ; la bibliothèque personnelle du roi ; l’héritage d’Anne de Bretagne et de Claude de France ; la saisie des livres de la famille de Bourbon ; le rêve italien et oriental ; et enfin lecabinet privé du roi, totalement inédit.

Recueil de cartes géographiques de François d'Angoulême, futur François Ier ; Val-de-Loire, vers 1504-1515© BnF

BLOIS.- In 2015, various events, including major exhibitions, will be organized during the year. Located in the heart of the Loire Valley, the Royal Château of Blois is a hotspot for art and history, visited by nearly 300.000 people each year. Heir to a prestigious royal past, it has conducted for several years an active policy of touristic and cultural development for all. The Château has led in particular a program of major exhibitions about the civilization of Renaissance. Favorite residence of the Court in the sixteenth century, it was also the first project undertaken by Francis I from 1515. Location of the royal library until 1544 (date of its transfer to Fontainebleau), the castle could not therefore fail to participate in this anniversary with a major international exhibition. The City of Blois and the Bibliothèque nationale de France have joined forces to produce one of the most important exhibition of this anniversary, the largest one outside Paris and the Paris region. Elisabeth Latrémolière, chief curator and director of the Royal Château of Blois and Blois museums, is the general curator of this exhibition and Maxence Hermant, curator of the Manuscript department at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, is the scientific curator. 

Marco Polo, Livre des merveilles, vers 1410-1412. Commande du duc de Bourgogne Jean sans Peur, offert à Jean de Berry. Est présent dans la bibliothèque de Charles d'Angoulême© BnF

For the first time the most valuable books of Francis I have been gathered, along with a collection of artefacts also coming from the royal collections. Of the 140 pieces selected, nearly 130 are kept at the Bibliothèque nationale de France : manuscripts and printed books, precious book covers, engravings and drawings, coins and medals, artefacts and jewels. The other works of art come from major French and international cultural institutions (Louvre museum), in particular from the United States (the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Morgan Library and Museum of New York) or from private collections (United States). Throughout the exhibition, visitors will admire numerous artworks rarely exposed due to their fragility and preciousness. It is the first attempt to recreate Francis’s library in such an ambitious way. Many books are back at the Royal Château of Blois for the first time since the sixteenth century, which will generate for sure public interest. Among other exceptional pieces being presented are the famous Grandes heures d’Anne de Bretagne illuminated by Jean Bourdichon ; the Heures de Louis de Laval illuminated by Jean Colombe, considered as the most illuminated manuscript in the world with 1.200 miniatures ; one of the twenty embroidered cover books from the Renaissance still existing in the world ; the Bible from Robert Estienne, printed in 1540 with a very precious cover book marked by the royal F; and one of the Caroligian Évangiles, from the ninth century later binded by Francis I.  

Eusèbe, Vie de l'empereur Constantin, vers 1540 ; relié aux armes de François Ier par Étienne Roffet© BnF

The exhibition has been built around sets of books with the same origin or context of acquisition, allowing the public to capture its richness and complexity : the inheritance from Angoulême’s family (John of Angoulême and Marguerite de Rohan, Francis’s grandparents, Charles de Valois, Duke of Angoulême and Louise of Savoy, his parents, and finally the young Francis of Angoulême himself, future Francis I) ; Blois royal library ; the king personal library ; Anne of Brittany and Claude of France’s bequests ; the books taken from the Bourbon family ; the royal chapel ; the Oriental and Italian dream ; and finally the king’s private cabinet, previously unseen. The public will then discover what the royal « library » consisted of, Francis’s personal library as much as the royal institutional library. The manuscripts of this library demonstrate the persistence of the medieval taste for luxurious large formats of princely libreries. The incunabula (books printed before 1500) also testify Renaissance typographical researches and the different techniques of binding. The library of Francis I, man of letters, composed of Greek and Latin texts, practical and technical books, literary works and devotional books illustrates the Renaissance cultural environment but also the taste and the education of a prince. Was there a single library of various ones, with different contents, status and subjects ?

Heures de Louis de Laval, enluminées à Bourges et Tours par Jean Colombe et le Maître du missel de Yale, vers 1470-1475 et vers 1480© BnF

Heures de Louis de Laval, enluminées à Bourges et Tours par Jean Colombe et le Maître du missel de Yale, vers 1470-1475 et vers 1480 Bible, Paris : Robert Estienne, 1540 ; relié aux armes de François Ier © BnF

Libraries from the Renaissance period were different from those of later centuries. The exhibition therefore answers practical questions: what was looking like the royal library? Both in its location within the royal apartments, in its furnitures (cabinets, shelves…), and in its setting in Blois and later in Fontainebleau ; what was its use ? At the same time place of study and collection ; and finally, how was it working ? The role of scholars and librarians… Based on researches initiated several years ago, this exhibition takes a fresh look at Francis’s book collection, between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. It also allows an exceptional access for a large public to some treasures from French national collections. Francis’s books were indeed the source of the kings of France’s library which became the national library during the Revolution. Particular attention has been paid to the mediation of the exhibition, with visits and suitable devices. Digital technologies also are present in the exhibition, making a link between past and present. Digital terminals allow the public to browse through the most important books, such as the Grandes heures d’Anne de Bretagne. Flash codes placed on display cases allow consultation of books scanned in high definition and color on Gallica, the BnF online library. The visitors are able to share those links on social medias.

 A picture taken on June 30, 2015 shows a page from "Grandes Heures d'Anne de Bretagne" (Grandes Heures of Anne of Brittany), a book of hours, as part the exhibition "Royal treasures of Francis I of France's library" commemorating the 500th anniversary of the accession to the throne of King Francois I and the Battle of Marignano at the Chateau Royal de Blois. The exhibition runs from July 4 to 18. AFP PHOTO / GUILLAUME SOUVANT

A man installs the "Grandes Heures d'Anne de Bretagne" (Grandes Heures of Anne of Brittany), a book of hours, as part the exhibition "Royal treasures of Francis I of France's library" commemorating the 500th anniversary of the accession to the throne of King Francois I and the Battle of Marignano at the Chateau Royal de Blois. The exhibition runs from July 4 to 18. AFP PHOTO / GUILLAUME SOUVANT.

Detail of Blue Lotus, 1973. Lithograph on paper 22 x 30 inches, by Chang Dai-chien (Zhang Daqian). Fine Arts Gallery at SF State, Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area. 

SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area announced its inaugural edition celebrating Asian art in the Bay Area, October 2-10, 2015. The week will include a public program roster of galleries, museums, universities and institutions presenting exhibitions and programs representing the full spectrum of Asian cultures. 

Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area seeks to build a broad alliance between dealers, artists, scholars, collectors and enthusiasts of Asian art, while also creating opportunities for the general public to discover new artworks and culturally distinct points of view within their communities. 

A natural fit for the exceptionally diverse region home to over 7 million people, boasting nearly a quarter that identify as Asian or of Asian descent (1,664,384 according to the 2010 census), Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area seeks to promote the rich arts heritage found across Asia, from antiquity to the contemporary, and explore its impact in the Bay Area. 

Early partners of Asia Week San Francisco Bay area include: ArtSpan, San Francisco, Asia Society, San Francisco; University of California Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA), Berkeley; Bonhams, San Francisco; Fine Arts Gallery at San Francisco State University, San Francisco; International Art Gallery, San Francisco; International Art Museum of America, San Francisco; Japan Society of Northern California, San Francisco; Michaan’s Auctions, Alameda; Mongolia Foundation, Berkeley; NanHai Art, Millbrae; Peninsula Art Institute, Burlingame; Peninsula Museum of Art, Burlingame; SFO Museum, San Francisco, and Warren's Antiques, San Francisco. Complete partners and program schedule will be announced shortly. 

Blue Lotus, 1973. Lithograph on paper 22 x 30 inches, by Chang Dai-chien (Zhang Daqian). Fine Arts Gallery at SF State, Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area.

The Fine Arts Gallery regularly presents exhibitions of Asian and Asian American art, and related public programs including lectures, panels and symposia. Past programs have included 'The Moment for Ink' (2013); and 'Chang Dai-chien in California' (1999). gallery.sfsu.edu 

kambara, 1834. Woodblocks 14.5 x 9.5 inches, by Ando Hiroshige. International Art Gallery, Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area.

Established in 1971, International Art Gallery is a gallery specialize in Japanese hanga (woodblock print) and paintings dating from the late 18th c. to present. To celebrate the inaugural year of Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area, we are hosting an exhibition and sale of works by masters of the Ukiyo-e hanga, Shin hanga, Sosaku hanga and Japanese sumi paintings. www.tokaidoarts.com 

Ji Gong Huo Fo, Contemporary. Colored ink on xuan zhi paper by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, in 'Treasure Room Opening', exhibition October 4 – October 4 at International Art Museum of America, Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area.

Stone Seals, Contemporary. Stone seal stamps and ink brushwork by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, in 'Treasure Room Opening', exhibition October 4 – October 4 at International Art Museum of America, Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area.

Emerald-Jade Art Frame, Contemporary. Sculpture by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, in 'Treasure Room Opening', exhibition October 4 – October 4 at International Art Museum of America, Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area.

The Treasure Room contains the most precious pieces made by H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, the likes of which cannot be seen anywhere else in the world. They were brought to the IAMA for the public to enjoy, despite offers from private collectors of over $70,000,000. These art works were originally exhibited in the United States Capitol and the Organization of American States (OAS est. 1823), where government officials, diplomats, senators and congresspersons from 39 member countries described them as “soul-captivatingly beautiful” and as “Gifts from God to mankind.” IAMA offers discounted admission to the Treasure Room only twice a year. For one day of Asia Week at 2:00 pm, visitors will have a chance to open the Treasure Room. Tickets are normally sold at a price of $600 for groups of ten people or less. For this event, individuals may purchase tickets for $60 (admitting one person per ticket).

The International Art Museum of America is proudly situated in the community of downtown San Francisco. IAMA is a public-benefit, non-profit art museum which opened in October 2011. IAMA strives to provide a global lens for people to appreciate art and culture by unveiling the hidden bonds among seemingly disparate worlds. We have been working continuously to collect diverse artworks and to expand our beautiful collection, thus promoting harmony and peace among people. Free admission for 2015. www.iamasf.org 

Japanese Parasol, by Unknown. Japan Society of Northern California at Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area.

Founded in 1905, the Japan Society steadfastly pursues its strategic mission to advance U.S. – Japan collaboration and understanding in a global context. The Society strives to be the place to go for U.S. – Japan insights, opportunities, collaboration, and networking. The Society offers a truly distinctive U.S. – Japan connection. At its core, the Japan Society of Northern California (JSNC) nurtures the unique U.S. – Japan cross-cultural experience cherished by its members. This is accomplished through offering a broad array of programs and networking opportunities. JSNC also offers a very successful Japanese language instruction program for individuals and on-site classes tailored for corporations. www.usajapan.org 

A Blue-Glazed and Enamel-Decorated Vase, Late Twentieth Century. Porcelain and Enamel by Xu Tianmei (1910-1994), signed. Michaan's Auctions at Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area.

Founded in 1905, the Japan Society steadfastly pursues its strategic mission to advance U.S. – Japan collaboration and understanding in a global context. The Society strives to be the place to go for U.S. – Japan insights, opportunities, collaboration, and networking. The Society offers a truly distinctive U.S. – Japan connection. At its core, the Japan Society of Northern California (JSNC) nurtures the unique U.S. – Japan cross-cultural experience cherished by its members. This is accomplished through offering a broad array of programs and networking opportunities. JSNC also offers a very successful Japanese language instruction program for individuals and on-site classes tailored for corporations. www.usajapan.org 

October 8 – October 8. Asian Art Auction Appraisals

October 10 – October 10. Asian Works of Art Auction, showcasing fine jade carvings, porcelains, bronzes, glassware, scrolls and textiles.

Crack_6_11, 2011. Ink and Color on Paper, 142 1/8 x 71 1/4 inches by Qiu Deshu. NanHai Art at Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area.

Crack_12_09, 2009. Ink on Paper by Qiu Deshu. NanHai Art at Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area.

Crack_II_6_09, 2009. Ink on Paper by Qiu Deshu. NanHai Art at Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area.

Founded in 1986, NanHai Art focuses on introducing the major artworks by contemporary Chinese artists that reflect the unique aesthetics of Chinese art while transcending cultural and artistic boundaries with a contemporary sensibility. With a thoughtful selection of artists and a particular emphasis on academic discourse, NanHai Art is committed to present the highest level of Chinese contemporary art to a global audience. www.nanhaiart.com 

Unknown. Mixed Media by Richard Deutsch. Peninsula Art Institute at Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area.

Tenacity, 2013. Photograph by Mark Kitaoka. Peninsula Art Institute at Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area.

Founded in December 2012, the Peninsula Art Institute (PAI) is home to more than 25 resident visual artists and is located on the San Francisco Peninsula. Its missions is to provide a supportive working environment for creative professionals in the visual arts and a cultural resource for the community. PAI is a department of the Peninsula Museum of Art. Artist disciplines include Painting, Sculpture, Photography, Fibre Art. Art classes are offered throughout the year. PAI artists open their studios twice a year to the public - in May during a Silicon Valley Open Studios weekend and towards the end of the year. Specific times and dates will be available on this web site. http://www.peninsulaartinstitute.org

Detail of Twin Pagoda model 1912–15, Song Dynasty (960–1280 CE). Bricks and Stucco 53 inches, by Unknown. in 'The Tushanwan Pagodas: Architectural Models from the Chinese Pavilion at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition', Exhibition April 4 – October 25 at SFO Museum. Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area.

Pagoda of the Six Harmonies model 1912–15, Tang Dynasty (920 CE). Bricks and Wood 66 inches, by Unknown. in 'The Tushanwan Pagodas: Architectural Models from the Chinese Pavilion at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition', Exhibition April 4 – October 25 at SFO Museum. Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area.

Warren's Antiques is one of San Francisco's premier antique shops providing excellent service for over 20 years. We sell 18th, 19th and early 20th century antique furniture, decorative accessories, American, English, Continental and Asian art pieces. We also provide excellent quality restoration services and techniques including, but are not limited to: Specializing, Veneer Work, Gilding, Carving, Paint finishing, Oriental lacquering and French polish. Custom work done upon request. www.warrensantiques.com 

Porcelain Plaque Screen, Republic Era. Mixed Media 80.5 x 76 inches by Zhang Zhi Tang. Warren's Antiques at Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area.

Porcelain Plaque Four Panel Hongmu Floor Screen, Republic Era. Mixed Media 78 x 80 inches by Attribute Lang Shi Ning. Warren's Antiques at Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area.

Marble Inset Table Screen, Republic Era. Mixed Media 21 x 33 x 10 inches by Unknown. Warren's Antiques at Asia Week San Francisco Bay Area.

Warren's Antiques is one of San Francisco's premier antique shops providing excellent service for over 20 years. We sell 18th, 19th and early 20th century antique furniture, decorative accessories, American, English, Continental and Asian art pieces. We also provide excellent quality restoration services and techniques including, but are not limited to: Specializing, Veneer Work, Gilding, Carving, Paint finishing, Oriental lacquering and French polish. Custom work done upon request. www.warrensantiques.com 

Nuun. Manchette « Orchidée » en or rose, rubis (6 cts), saphirs roses (23,90 cts), spinelles (11,3 cts) et spessartite (3,82 cts). 

MONTE-CARLO - L’Hôtel L’Hermitage de Monte-Carlo accueille le 30 juillet 2015 à 14h une vente aux enchères unique, organisée par la maison Boule, qui réunira les plus grands noms de la joaillerie de la place Vendôme et de Bond Street.

La vente proposera notamment deux pièces uniques de la collection Ombre et Lumière de Nuun : le bracelet Orchidée et la bague Thé vert.

Parfaite illustration du défi artistique et artistique de Nuun, le bracelet Orchidée est une des pièces maitresses de la vente : 3 artisans sertisseurs ont travaillé pendant 20 jours à poser délicatement les 2 278 pierres, tandis que la tige a demandé 10 mois de recherche et de travail afin d’obtenir une souplesse et une légèreté parfaites mais aussi la force de tenir la majestueuse fleur.

Du 27 au 30 juillet, les bijoux seront exposés dans les salons Trianon et Jardin d’Hiver de l’Hermitage. La vente s’ouvrira le 30 à 14h00.

Nuun. « Thé Vert » ring in yellow gold, spessartites (4,37 cts) and yellow sapphires (1,43 cts).

On July 30th, the Hotel Hermitage will host an exclusive high jewellery and watches auction, to be organised by the Monaco house Boule Auctions. It will include unique pieces by the most famous brands on Place Vendôme and Bond Street.

The auction will feature two unique pieces by Nuun Jewels: the amazing Orchidée bracelet and the stunning Thé Vert ring from the “Light and Shadow” collection.

The Orchidée bracelet is a unique example of Nuun’s dazzling craftsmanship and designs: it took 20 days for the three stone setters to set the 2,278 gems. The stem itself required 10 months of research and work to achieve the bracelet’s perfect lightness and flexibility without compromising the strength required to hold the flower head.

All pieces to be auctioned will be exhibited from the 27th to the 30th of July, in the Salon Triano and in the Salon Jardin d’Hiver at the Hermitage. The catalogue is also available online. The auction will open at 2:00pm on Thursday the 30th.

Claude Montana, automne-hiver 1993-1994. Veste oversize en vison curry et col de renard colza, pièce unique. Estimation 2,500 — 3,000 EUR. Lot. Vendu 3,750 EUR Photo: Sotheby"s.

Claude Montana, A/W 1993-94. An over-sized chartreuse mink jacket with deep fox collar

Provenance: Garde-robe de Madame Wallis Montana, épouse du créateur

Bibliographie: Claude Montana et Marielle Cro, Montana, L’Editeur, Paris, 2010, p. 181.

Claude Montana, automne-hiver 1993-1994.

Sotheby's. Rencontres Couture à Paris de la Collection Didier Ludot, 8 juillet 2015

A late Louis XV ormolu-mounted Chinese celadon crackle-glazed porcelain two-handled vase. The mounts attributed to Jean-Claude-Thomas Duplessis, circa 1770, the porcelain 18th century. Estimate: £700,000-1,000,000 ($1,089,200 - $1,556,000). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The domed lid formed of an inverted shallow dish surmounted by a foliate and egg-and-dart cast cover with berried finial, flanked by twinned square-section panelled handles with pinecone bosses and foliate patera finials, issuing from a Greek-key frieze, above a fluted-and-dart lip hung with with oak leaf and acorn swags, on a fluted and cabochon guilloche socle and square base, one garland with differing chasing and possibly replaced, the porcelain body covered in an even celadon glaze suffused with a dense network of dark grey and finer russet crackles; 18 in. (45.5 cm.) high; 14 in. (35.5 cm.) wide; 11 5/8 in. (29.5 cm.) deep 

Provenance: Acquired by Duke Albert (1738-1822) and the Archduchess Marie-Christine (1742-1798) de Saxe-Teschen, château de Laeken. 
Galerie Segoura, Paris. 
The Collection of Hossein Qizilbash; sold Christie's, Paris, 19 December 2007, lot 803. 

The Saxe Teschen celadon vase

DUKE ALBERT OF SAXE-TESCHEN 
Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen (1738-1822) was the youngest son of August III of Poland, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. He was educated at the court in Dresden and embarked on a military career. In 1766, he married Archduchess Marie-Christine of Habsburg-Lorraine (1742-1798), favourite daughter of Empress Maria-Theresa and elder sister of Marie Antoinette. His marriage secured him a considerable fortune, which enabled him to form an extraordinary collection, renowned both for its quality and quantity. The Duke and Archduchess were joint governors of the Southern Netherlands from 1780 to 1792 and were based at the château de Laeken, near Brussels. 

A key figure who assisted the duke in forming his collections was the Austrian ambassador to Venice, comte Durazzo (1717-1794), whom the duke met in 1773. The ambassador encouraged the duke to collect on a grand scale and to establish a collection ‘qui soit au service d’une cause plus noble que les autre collection et qui sache flatter des yeux, tout en développant l’esprit’. The influence of French encyclopaedists, especially d’Alembert, was significant for this vision. In 1775-76, the duke and archduchess carried out a Grand Tour to Italy, which also matured their tastes for collecting. In mid-1776, after two years of continuous purchases, their collection already numbered thirty-thousand items, but this would increase dramatically and during subsequent landmark sales such as Basan, Crozat and d’Argentville numerous important purchases were made. With a budget of one million, two hundred thousand florins dedicated to purchases of works of art, the duke was one of the wealthiest collectors in the second half of the 18th Century. 

Travelling under the name comte and comtesse de Bely, the duke and archduchess travelled to Paris in 1786, especially to purchase works of art. Correspondence with her sister Queen Marie Antoinette reveals that they visited the celebrated marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre (d. 1796) in the same year. Interestingly, they received a Gobelins tapestry from the King. Later, two important transactions would mark the history of the collection: the purchase of eight hundred drawings from Prince Charles-Antoine de Ligne and the exchange of drawings and engravings with the Imperial Library in 1796. Part of these collections now form the nucleus of the rich collections of works on paper of the Albertina, their Vienna residence, which they established on their return to Austria. 

THE SAXE-TESCHEN ALBUM OF DRAWINGS 
The present vase features in the so-called Saxe-Teschen album, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (F. Watson, Mounted Oriental Porcelain, Washington, 1986, p. 126) depicting works of art from the collection of the Duke and Archduchess of Saxe-Teschen. The drawings are dedicated to the decorative arts and include luxurious French furniture, oriental porcelain, both mounted and unmounted, clocks and various other categories. Some of the drawings are finished, others are unfinished, and the exact origin of the ensemble of drawings remains unclear. The depicted works of art are of different dates, some in the rococo style, others in bold goût grec, such as the present vase, and further items in a pure neo-classical style, suggesting that these drawings, or at least some of them, were not preparatory drawings, but rather are drawings of a group or part of an existing collection. Watson discusses that some drawings of porcelain-mounted furniture were perhaps used by the marchands-merciers Simon-Philippe Poirier (d. 1785) and his successor Dominique Daguerre to show items from their stock to clients or alternatively these may have been of items already in their collection at Laeken. 

The present vase features on a plate depicting four items of porcelain where it is numbered XXI. It is surmounted by a description which notes the figuring of the celadon porcelain very precisely: ‘Cette pièce est de la même espèce de porcelaine, mais d’un blanc tirant un peu plus sur un gré bleuâtre, et dont les rayes ou crevasses sont moins rapproches, elle est pareillement montée en bronze’. It is flanked by no. XX, a more highly-finished drawing of a large baluster-shaped vase with florid rococo mounts, which is very similar to a vase in the Louvre. The latter has mounts bearing the ‘C’ couronné poinçon tax mark, employed on any alloy containing copper from March 1745 to February 1749, proving an approximate date for the execution of this vase. Interestingly, this places the two vases, nos. XX and XXI, although depicted on the same plate, more than twenty years apart. A further drawing in the album, numbered XIII, is of a monumental vase executed around 1765-70 with lion masks and which is known in at least three versions. One was sold from the collection of Karl Lagerfeld, Christie’s, Monaco, 28 April 2000, lot 350. 

MOUNTS BY DUPLESSIS 
The bold and beautifully-chased mounts of the present vase have generally been attributed to the maître fondeur Jean-Claude-Thomas Duplessis (d. 1783). Son of Jean-Claude Chambellan Duplessis (d. 1774), bronzier and orfèvre du Roi, Jean-Claude-Thomas is first mentioned in 1752 when he was assisting his father in making models for the porcelain manufactory at Vincennes. In 1765 he is registered as maître fondeur en terre et sable. His father seems to have been active until circa 1763 after which date he does not seem to have had any real workshop. Bronzes made during the mid-1760s may therefore be considered as a collaboration of father and son including, for instance, those for the celebrated Bureau du Roi executed by Jean-Francois Oeben (d. 1763) and Jean-Henri Riesener (d. 1806) between 1760 and 1769 (S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France, London, 1974, pp. 174-175). This monumental and richly-mounted bureau is embellished with a mixture of ‘antique’ bronzes such as garlands, vases and ribbon-twist in combination with earlier motifs such as the scrolling candle-branches in sweeping and sinuous shapes characteristic of Duplessis’ oeuvre. 
Duplessis père and fils’ principle clients were some of the most illustrious amateurs of the 18th Century and included, besides Louis XV, Lazare Duvaux, Augustin Blondel de Gagny and Laurent Grimod de la Reynière. Vases were a significant part of the oeuvre of Duplessis fils and he published two series of vases in 1775-80 (P. Verlet, Les bronzes dorés français du XVIII siècle, Paris, 1999, p. 415) and the Almanach des Artistes of 1777 lists that he was a ‘bon dessinateur’ and ‘travaille d’apres ses dessins’. 

GUAN-TYPE GLAZED PORCELAIN 
The Guan-type glaze used on this vase imitates the Guanyao glaze from the Song period. The application of Song-type celadon glazes to porcelain was an aspect of archaism seen at the court of the Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors during the 18th Century and started at the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen in the early Ming dynasty. It was one of several archaistic trends that continued into the Qing reigns. 

CHATEAU DE LAEKEN 
Known as Schoonenberg in the 18th Century, the château de Laeken was built between 1782 and 1785 to the designs of the celebrated Parisian architect Charles de Wailly (d. 1798). The imposing neo-classical building divided in five bays was surmounted by a dome above the central pavilion. The interiors were executed by the sculptor, architect and designer Gilles-Paul Cauvet (d. 1788), who worked extensively for the comte de Provence and directed the Académie de St Luc, the guild of sculptors. The refined and luxurious interiors created by Cauvet in the latest ‘antique’ fashion of the 1780s were a sophisticated backdrop for the superb collections of the Duke and Archduchess of Saxe-Teschen. Napoleon acquired the château in 1804 and established an Imperial residence and since 1830 Laeken has become one of the residences of the Kings of Belgium. 

Christie's. TASTE OF THE ROYAL COURT: IMPORTANT FRENCH FURNITURE AND WORKS OF ART FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, 9 July 2015, London, King Street

A Louis XV ormolu-mounted Chinese flambé-glazed porcelain vase. The mounts attributed to Jean-Claude Chambellan Duplessis, circa 1755, the porcelain second quarter 18th century. Estimate: £600,000-1,000,000 ($933,600 - $1,556,000).  Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The vase mounted with vigorously scrolling flared neck and paired acanthus handles, the base cast with scrolling acanthus, rocaille, shells and flowerheads, with fragmentary blue-bordered paper label to the inside of the neck inscribed …6 / ..le…; 20 ¼ in. (51.5 cm.) high; 11 7/8 in. (30 cm.) wide; 10 1/8 in. (25.5 cm.) deep

Provenance:  Almost certainly Jean-Baptiste de Machault d'Arnouville (1701-1794), Contrôleur Général des Finances, Garde des Sceaux, Secrétaire d'Etat à la Marine and by descent to his son 
Charles-Henri-Louis de Machault d'Arnouville (1747-1830), Maréchal de Camp, who by his marriage in 1773 to Angélique de Baussan acquired the château de Thoiry; 
Almost certainly by descent to Henriette de Machault d'Arnouville (1808-1864) who in 1826 married Léonce Melchior, Marquis de Vogüé (1805-1877), hôtel de Vogüé on rue Fabert, Paris and by descent to 
Solange de Vogüé, wife of Antoine, Comte de la Panouse, château de Thoiry; sold Sotheby’s, Monaco, 11 February 1979, lot 232a. 

The Machault d’Arnouville flambé vase

This spectacular vase is a masterpiece of the art of mounting porcelain perfected by marchands-merciers such as Lazare Duvaux and Thomas-Joachim Hébert in the 1740s and 1750s. It unites superbly cast and chased gilt-bronzes attributed to the chief designer and sculpteur at Sèvres Jean-Claude Chambellan Duplessis, with a rare and stunning vase of flambé-glazed Chinese porcelain. It is likely to have been owned by Jean Baptiste de Machault d’Arnouville, one of the most powerful men in France under Louis XV and a confidante of Madame de Pompadour, who was a passionate collector of porcelain and lacquer.

COMTE JEAN-BAPTISTE DE MACHAULT D’ARNOUVILLE
Jean-Baptiste de Machault d'Arnouville (1701-1794), a favourite minister of Louis XV, was appointed Contrôleur Général des Finances on 29 November 1750 to 1757 and as a result was one of the most powerful men at the French court. He was close friend of Madame du Pompadour, who shared his passion for collecting decorative arts, and whom she often consulted before making purchases. As Contrôleur Général he was responsible for the administration of the Royal Porcelain Factory at Vincennes, which relocated to Sèvres in 1756, and took particular interest in the development of new techniques, the sourcing of new models imported from the East, and the bronziers linked to the factory, who created gilt-bronze mounts to adorn specific models of vases. Such was his interest that for several years it was recorded that he received a special annual present from the factory (V. Pruchniki, Arnouville, Le château des Machault au XVIIIè siècle, Paris, 2013, p. 77.) 

In 1750 Machault inherited land from his father, and inspired by the duc de Saint-Simon’s château La Ferté-Vidame, he employed Pierre Contant d’Ivry (1698-1777), Architecte du Roi, to create château d’Arnouville with an impressive budget of four million livres. His impeccable taste and interest led him to buy masterpieces from some of the greatest craftsmen of the day: lacquer furniture by BVRB, bronzes by Susini, silver by François-Thomas-Germain and an armoire which featured in the 1736 inventory of the marchand-ébéniste Noël Gérard, which is now at Versailles. But it is for his important collection of ormolu-mounted European and Chinese porcelain that he is perhaps best known, several stunning examples of which were published by Pruchnicki (ibid., pp. 45-49). 

It is likely that he acquired the present vase at the height of this project, circa 1755, to furnish his splendid new home. The inventories taken at the end of the Revolution have quite succinct descriptions but it is fascinating to find the following entry listed in the chambre du ministre: un vase de porcelaine des Indes jaspée bleue et blanc avec anses, gouleau et pieds de bronze doré d’or moulu portant dix sept pouces de haut. The language used to describe colours and glazes has evolved over the centuries and it is possible that the ‘Indes jaspee bleue’ is an 18th-century reference to the fact that the flambé glaze has the appearance of jasper. An alternative origin for the vase and a further indication of the similar tastes of Machault and Madame de Pompadour is an intriguing entry in the Livre-Journal of Lazare Duvaux for December 1753 - 1607. Mme. la Marq. de pompadour: Deux grands vases de porcleaine jaspée de rouge & bleu, montés en bronze ciselé& doré d’or moulu, 3,600 l. – Un autre vase, même porcelaine, monté sur quatre pieds & deux anses en bronze doré d’or moulu, le dessus orné de fleurs, 720 l. (L. Courajod, Livre-Journal de Lazare Duvaux, Marchand-Bijoutier Ordinaire du Roy, 1748-1758, Paris, 1873, vol. II, no. 1607). The description and sheer cost of these vases clearly represent an important and luxurious commission and could conceivably indicate that the present vase was a gift from la Favorite to Machault. 

Machault withdrew from political life in 1757, following his dispute with Madame du Pompadour, and whilst his official revenues ceased the collection was still added to after his retirement – he continued to receive annual gifts from Sèvres until 1768. A fascinating insight into royal patronage is that he only received the Gobelins tapestries accorded to him by Louis XV as the Garde des Sceaux in 1783, more than a quarter of a century after his retirement (ibid., pp. 38-82).

Much of Machault’s collection was inherited by his granddaughter, Henriette Marie Maguerite de Machault d’ Arnouville (1808-1864), who also inherited château de Thoiry from her mother Angélique Baussan (1752-1813). Rather than house her collection at château de Thoiry she and her husband Léonce Melchior, Marquis de Vogüé (1805-1877) instead chose to build hôtel de Vogüé on rue Fabert, Paris, completed in 1868. Although the exterior was relatively modest, the interiors were incredibly luxurious and conceived in the latest fashion. It is almost certain that the present vase, proudly displayed on the far left console table in the Salon Seine, was amongst the items Henriette inherited from her paternal grandfather. 

Henriette’s great-granddaughter Solange de Vogüé (1920-2003), married Antoine, Comte de la Panouse (1914-2006) in 1942. The couple resided at château de Thoiry, from where the present vase was sold at Sotheby’s, Monaco, 11 February 1979, lot 232a.

THE GLAZE 
This rare example of a flambé glazed vase, from either the Yongzheng (1722-1735) or Qianlong reigns (1735-1799) demonstrates the imperial demand for vibrant new ceramic glaze colours. It was almost certainly developed under the supervision of the renowned kiln director Tang Ying (1682-1756), who was sent by the Imperial Household to the porcelain capital Jingdezhen in 1728, and officially appointed Director of the Kilns in 1736. 
Although clearly inspired by the splashed purple and blue glazes of Jun wares of the Jin (265-420) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, the process of applying multiple glazes to one vessel to achieve the flambé glaze was a far more sophisticated technique. Song dynasty potters only used a single glaze with copper applied to the surface in places, but for the flambé glaze several different glazes with different consistencies were used, but it was essential that all of these glazes would fire at the same temperature. The complicated scientific nature of the process required tenacity and innovation in order to discover the perfect combination of glaze consistency, tone and firing time. The vivid, rich beauty of the present vase is testament to the triumph of their labour and ingenuity. 

THE ATTRIBUTION TO DUPLESSIS 
Duplessis' career was illustrious and he is recorded as a sculptor, ceramics modeller, goldsmith, and bronzier working in the rocaille manner. Despite the fact that Duplessis is today recognised as one of the most talented and influential designers and bronziers of his day there has not yet been any serious study of his oeuvre and only a few pieces can be firmly attributed to him, including a pair of ormolu braziers commissioned by Jean-Baptiste Machault d'Arnouville for royal presentation in 1742 to the Ambassador of Turkey; one of which is today at the Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul, demonstrating how early in his career Machault developed close links with Duplessis. With limited documented examples or indeed patterns available, attention has turned to designs for porcelain during the period 1748 to 1774, when Duplessis was artistic director at Vincennes and its successor, Sèvres. Of particular interest are thebalustre rocaille vases made in soft and hard paste porcelain from circa 1750, which were named after him – 'Vase Duplessis'. A drawing of this design survives in the Sèvres archive (L.H. Roth, C. Le Corbeiller, French Eighteenth-Century Porcelain at the Wadsworth Atheneum; The J. Pierpont Morgan Collection, p. 105, fig. 59-1). Examples of these porcelain vases are at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (24.214.5) and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (C.357-1909). A pair in the Indianapolis Museum of Art (1993.63) is applied with gilt-bronze mounts. In the early 1990s, the art historian Ted Dell, extrapolating from Duplessis' vases for Vincennes and Sèvres, recognised Duplessis' craftsmanship in the bold Louis XV gilt-bronze mounts of a pair of dark blue Chinese porcelain vases in the Frick Collection (15.8.43-44) and tentatively suggested that the latter were part of a core group with closely comparable gilt-bronze mounts, circa 1755-60, that appear to be made by the same hand (T. Dell, The Frick Collection, Furniture and Gilt Bronzes, vol. VI, Princeton, 1992, pp. 309-314). 

The present example falls into this group, demonstrating many of the recognisable characteristics of Duplessis' style, such as the homogenous unity of form and decoration, suggesting that the mounts were made specifically for the vase, and the substantial and symmetrical acanthus scroll mounts of the highest quality illustrate the superb modelling and chasing for which Duplessis is renowned. Another notable feature is the number of different surface finishes, with matt, semi-matt and burnished, as well as a variety of particularly naturalistic treatments that are used to intensify shadows and light to create a naturalistic and fluid effect (G. Sadde, 'Jean-Claude Duplessis, la liberté du style rocaille',L'Estampille-L'Objet d'Art, no. 392, June 2004, pp. 42-51). 

The boldly scrolling acanthus mounts that wrap around the body of this vase are identical to those found on a magnificent pair of hexagonal baluster-shaped blue Chinese porcelain bottle-necked vases in the Royal Collection. Formerly in the Entrance Hall at Brighton Pavilion, they were recorded in the 1829 Inventory as, 'A pair of Hexagon blue ground jars, mounted in very fine scroll leaf lips, handles and bases of ormolu, one foot seven and a half inches' (RCIN 262), and were transferred to Buckingham Palace in March 1847. This royal pair must have been acquired by the Prince Regent, later King George IV, who as a passionate connoisseur and collector significantly added to the Royal Collection of ormolu-mounted oriental porcelain. Both these and another large hard-paste porcelain flower vase at Windsor Castle with closely-related ormolu mounts, have been attributed to Duplessis. The single vase is documented to have been sold in 1751 by the marchand-mercier, Lazare Duvaux to Madame de Pompadour (ibid., p. 46). 

Duplessis owed his position and success to a number of influential patrons, including the well-connected Victor-Amédée de Savoie, Prince de Carignan, as well as Marc-René de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson, marquis de Voyer. While Duplessis held no official title and never received his maîtrise, he was widely recognised as such due to the protection and accessibility to royal circles that patronage provided. By 1758 he was listed as Orfèvre du Roi in the Sèvres account books. In his early career as a bronzier, Duplessis worked through the intermediary of marchands-merciers, who specialised in ormolu-mounted objects employing the services of a bronzier as required. A number of entries in theLivre-journal of the marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux show that Duplessis was regularly engaged to provide mounts for Chinese porcelain referred to as celadon in the day books for the Marquis de Voyer, Monsieur Gaignat and Madame de Pompadour (L. Courajod, Livre-Journal de Lazare Duvaux, Marchand-Bijoutier Ordinaire du Roy, 1748-1758, Paris, 1873, tome II, nos. 601, 1713 and 1810). One entry for the Marquis de Voyer describes 'Deux gros vases de porcelain celadon, montées par Duplessis en bronze doré d'or moulu' at a cost of 3,000 l., a vast sum that illustrates the importance of the commission. After several years his reputation had spread and aristocratic clients such as Augustin Blondel de Gagny and the duc de Chaulnes approached him directly. As an independent bronzier, Duplessis would not only have supplied the mounts but also the porcelain. To replenish his stock of oriental porcelain he frequented the Parisian salerooms, acquiring in 1767 from the collection of Jean de Jullienne 'pots pourris de porcelain d'ancien japon' and 'un grand vase de porcelain de Chine', the total bill coming to 3800 livres.

VASES WITH COMPARABLE MOUNTS 
The very distinctive scrolling foliate mounts permit this vase to be seen as one of a small group of vases, with virtually identical mounts:

-The aforementioned vases in the Royal Collection
- A Clair-de-lune porcelain vase sold by the order of the executors of the late 7th Earl of Harewood, K.B.E, Christie’s, London, 5 July 2012, lot 29 for £1,161,250. 
-Another from the same collection was sold Christie’s, London, 1 July 1965, lot 49, then with Roesenberg & Steibel, New York (F.J.B Watson, Mounted Oriental Porcelain, Washington D.C., 1986, no. 29). 
-A garniture of three vases with almost identical mounts was formerly in the Collection of Léon Levy, sold Sotheby's, Paris, 2 October 2008, lot 37. 
-Another pair, possibly supplied by the London dealer, E.H. Baldock of Hanway Street, is in the Collection of the Duke of Buccleuch at Bowhill ('Bowhill', Country Life, 19 June 1975, p. 1620, fig. 5). 
-Other comparable vases are at the Musée Nissim de Camondo, and at Waddesdon Manor (G. de Bellaigue, Furniture, Clocks and Gilt Bronzes, vol. II, 1974, p. 764). A further pair, described as 19th century, is at Tatton Park, Cheshire (National Trust inventory no. 1296815.1; P. Ferguson, ‘An Eclectic taste for ormolu mounted ceramics at Tatton Park, Cheshire', Antiques, June 2008, pp. 72-79). 

Christie's. TASTE OF THE ROYAL COURT: IMPORTANT FRENCH FURNITURE AND WORKS OF ART FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, 9 July 2015, London, King Street

An early Louis XV ormolu-mounted bois satiné and amaranth bureau plat (bureau à espagnolettes bouclées). By Charles Cressent  circa 1738-45. Estimate: £1,000,000-1,500,000 ($1,556,000 - $2,334,000). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The rectangular top with gilt-tooled leather writing-surface within a moulded border and with shell-cast mounts to the corners, above a quarter-veneered serpentine frieze with a leather-lined slide to the left side, five walnut-lined drawers to the front and opposing false drawers to the reverse, all with simulated-panelled border mounts, the central drawer with an escutcheon cast with a shell issuing acanthus, flanked by foliate and rocaille-cast bearded mask crescentmounts concealing secret drawers, the outer drawers with acanthus scroll handles, the ends mounted with smiling bearded young men with feathered caps within confronting C-scroll cartouches, the cabriole legs headed with ‘espagnolette’ chutes, two depicting an older woman and two a younger woman, with C-scroll and rocaille cast lion’s-paw feet, the underside of the bureau and the side of the right drawer stencilled GM / E and 9897, the right drawer also inscribed '201' in red chalk, with blue-bordered paper label inscribed '9843' and with further inventory label printed ‘No.’ and inscribed in ink '9843', the left drawer with similar label and fragments of a blue-bordered label, the underside with label inscribed '9843' and stamped '2' to underside of one drawer, the clasp to the reverse is a contemporary aftercast, two handles and the locks early 20th century, originally with a serre-papiers; 30 ½ in. (77.5 cm.) high; 81 in. (205.5 cm.) wide, excluding slide; 38 in. (96.5 cm.) deep

Provenance:  Possibly Emmanuell-Jacques Gaillard de Gagny (1703-1759), the sale of his Cabinet de Feu, Paris, 29 March 1762, lot 57 (the description corresponds either to this bureau or to the Louvre example). 
Paris Art Market, circa 1890 and then in 1913. 
Acquired by Jacques Seligmann (1858-1923), circa 1900-1920, and by descent to his son 
François-Gérard Seligmann (1912-1999), antique dealer and collector, half-brother of Germain Seligmann and nephew of Arnold Seligmann. 
Confiscated by the Nazi authorities during the Second World War.
Sold in 1944 to M. Quoniam, preempted by the Mobilier National (and marked GME 9897) and restituted to the Seligmann family in 1945.
sold by the Fondation Seligmann.
Private Collection, Paris.

Literature: A. Pradère, Charles Cressent, Paris, 2003, pp. 129 & 268, cat. 57.

The Cressent ‘Bureau a Espagnolettes Bouclees’

‘Celui-ci doit avoir sa place parmi les grands artistes français. Cressent É a succédéà la réputation du fameux Boulle dont le nom ne mourra jamais’ L’Abbe Raynal, Nouvelles Littéraires, 1749

This spectacular bureau plat is a masterpiece of Charles Cressent (1685-1767), who ranks with Boulle, Riesener and Gouthière as among the most famous craftsmen of the 18th Century and one of the select few to be mentioned by name in sale catalogues and inventories of the period, such was the fame of his work. He was trained as a sculptor, and in contravention of guild regulations chased and gilded bronzes in his own workshop, which enabled him to exercise an unrivalled artistic synthesis of bronzes and cabinet-making. Cressent’s fame rests largely on the extraordinarily sculptural quality of his gilt-bronze mounts, and his work, always sought after by elite collectors, has never gone out of fashion. 

GROUPING CRESSENT’S BUREAUX PLATS 
Cressent’s bureaux plats have become the most representative features of his work, the most present in great decorative arts collections and museums. Early models (à têtes de chinoises or espagnolettes coiffées d’aigrettes) are in the J.P. Getty Museum, the National Gallery of Washington, Cincinatti Art Museum, the Huntington Collection in San Marino and the château de Versailles. With their lines and bronze corner mounts strongly influenced by Boulle, they are datable to circa 1720-1730. A second group of amaranth bureaux of about the same period and again reminiscent of Boulle includes two bureaux at Waddesdon Manor, one at Versailles and one in the Wallace Collection, London (cat. F.11). 

The Seligmann bureau, which is identical to the one in the Louvre, is one of his most important works and a landmark in the history of styles and the evolution of the bureaux plats. It belongs to Cressent’s mature production when, free from the influence of Boulle, he developed a quiet rococo style with thinner legs, asymmetrical corner mounts and a soft serpentine movement that would become the trademark of almost all Louis XV bureaux. The group includes three smaller bureaux, one in the Residenz in Munich (inv. M14), another in the National Gallery of Art, Washington (C.276) and a third in a private collection in Paris. Three more desks belong to the same stage in the development of the bureaux, although slightly more rococo and with antique warrior heads on the corners: the one in the French Republic Presidents’ office at the Elysée Palace, the one at Grimsthorpe and the one in the Gulbenkian museum, Lisbon. On these desks, which are veneered mostly with bois satiné on the drawer fronts and sides, the mounts are detached on bands of amaranth which enhance their outlines, a stylistic invention that must probably be credited to Cressent. On Cressent’s larger bureaux such as the Seligmann and the Louvre examples but also on the Getty and Béhague ones, the mounts with bearded masks on each side of the central drawer conceal a narrow and deep secret drawer, again an invention of Cressent. 

THE QUESTION OF A SERRE-PAPIERS WITH DIANA AND THE HOUNDS 
Most of Cressent’s bureaux have nowadays lost their serre-papiers. However, originally, they all had a matching serre-papiers, as can be noted in the descriptions of the three sales of his stock in 1749, 1757, 1765, as well as in the sale catalogues of the time in which Cressent’s bureaux are mentioned. Indeed, one can see the trace of the position of such a serre-papiers on the long side of this bureau. Such a strange position is not unique, as we can see with the Richelieu bureau at Grimsthorpe (Pradère, op. cit., p. 131) which has a serre-papiers with the group of Diana and the hounds sitting on the long side without the lower structure. It is more than likely that the Seligmann desk had a serre-papierswith Diana, similar to the one in the Louvre and the one at Grimsthorpe. A bureau with the same corner mounts as the Seligmann one and the Louvre one and with a serre-papiers with Diana and the hounds, is described in detail in the sale of M. Gaillard de Gagny in 1762: 

n°57. Un beau & riche Bureau en bois d'Amarante satiné, de 6 pieds de longueur [195cm] sur 2 pieds 11 pouces [95 cm] de large, garni d'une Pendule à cadran de cuivre cizelé, enchassée en haut du serre papier, de forme ceintrée La garniture, en bronze doré d'or moulu, est composée, en partie, d'une belle figure de Diane tenant son Arc, & un Amour au cors de chasse; ces deux figures de rond de bosse, sont dessus le serre-papier: un peu plus bas sur les côtés, un Sanglier qu'un chien tient par l'oreille , & un Cerf qu'un autre chien tient par la gorge: quatre belles têtes d'Espagnolette sont sur les côtés du Bureau ; des masques sur les tiroirs, et autres ornemens. Ce morceau d'ouvrage, est composé& exécuté avec beaucoup de solidité& de goût par le sieur Cressant . 

The description perfectly fits the Louvre example, however, its history is obscure before its entry in the French national collections and nothing proves that the description might not concern the Seligmann example just as well. All the more, since one knows three lonely serre-papiers of this model that have lost their matching bureaux: one in Grimsthorpe (99 cm. wide), one in the Wallace Collection, London (102.9 cm. wide) and one formerly in the Lonsdale collection (Pradère, ibid. p. 129, note 27 and p. 172), all without a lower structure, which could correspond to the shadows evident on the leather of the Seligmann bureau. 

DATING 
None of these desks has the ‘C’ couronné poinçon tax mark that was applied to alloys containing copper, which would date it circa 1745-1749, but the model with the warriors’ heads is described in the Cressent sale catalogue of 1747, therefore we know the series predates 1745. Also the rich mounts of the matching serre-papiers with Diana and the hounds were cast by the bronzier Confesseur and are described in his inventory of 1759 but not in his previous inventory of 1737. Therefore, if the matching serre-papiers is datable between 1738 and 1745, one must give the same dating to these desks. 

GAILLARD DE GAGNY 
Emmanuel-Jacques Gaillard de Gagny (1703-1759) was the son of Jean Gaillard la Bouëxière, seigneur de la Bouëxière et de Gagny, secrétaire du roi in 1719, who lived at château de Gagny. M. Gaillard de Gagny was himself appointedtrésorier général des maréchaussées in 1729 and was a Receveur Général des Finance de Grenoble by the time of his death. He appears in records as one of the key clients of the Parisian marchand-mercier Claude-François Julliot (1727-1794), who compiled the inventory of M. Gaillard de Gagny's impressive collection following his death in 1759. The sale of his collection was held three years later, the catalogue compiled by M. Remy. 

THE DESK ON THE PARIS MARKET AT THE BELLE EPOQUE 
A photo in the archives of Galerie Fabre, Paris show this bureau with (on the back) a written certificate signed by the dealer-connoisseur Lortais (or Sortais?) and dated 10 March 1913, that reads: 'il m’a semblé reconnaître comme l’ayant propose en 1890 à Mr W.K. Vanderbilt dans l’appartement de M. Perdreau rue Meyerbeer et que je considère comme absolument ancien [I seem to recognize this desk as the one I offered for sale in 1890 to M. K. Vanderbilt in the apartment of M. Perdreau, rue Meyerbeer and I regard it as absolutely ancient]'. It is therefore certain that the desk was on the Paris art market at the end of the 19th Century and likely that it belonged to the galerie Fabre from 1913, some time before it was acquired by Jacques Seligmann. 

THE SELIGMANN DYNASTY 
The founder of the dynasty, Jacques (Jacob) Seligmann, one of the greatest art dealers of all time, was born in Frankfurt and moved to Paris in 1874, where he learnt his profession by being an assistant first to a Paris auctioneer, Paul Chevallier, then to the leading Paris expert in works of art, Charles Mannheim. In 1880 he opened his own shop, Jacques Seligmann & Cie in rue des Mathurins, at this stage – and for quite a long time - specialising in Medieval art. In 1900, going into partnership with his brothers Arnold and Simon (who acted as correspondent accountant), he moved the gallery to the Place Vendôme. 

Prominent clients of the company included Baron Edmond de Rothschild of France, the Stroganoff family of Russia, Sir Philip Sassoon of England, and American collectors Benjamin Altman, William Randolph Hearst, J.P. Morgan, Henry Walters, and Joseph Widener. As American clients increasingly came to dominate the company's sales activities, a New York office at 7 West 36th Street was opened in 1904. Five years later, Jacques purchased the Hôtel de Sagan (the recent Polish embassy in Paris) as a location where Jacques Seligmann & Cie. could stage larger exhibitions and receive its most distinguished clients. 

In 1912 a family quarrel resulted in a lawsuit that split the company. Arnold remained at the Place Vendôme location, reorganized under the name Arnold Seligmann & Cie., while Jacques consolidated his operations and moved the headquarters for Jacques Seligmann & Cie. to the Hôtel de Sagan. Jacques also opened an additional gallery at 17 Place Vendôme to retain a presence near the company's original location, but this branch soon relocated to 9 Rue de la Paix. The New York office, which formerly had operated out of a single room, was upgraded to larger office space and a gallery at 705 Fifth Avenue. 

Amongst all the commercial coups of Jacques Seligmann, the most famous and probably one of the biggest deals ever in the history of the art trade, was the purchase in 1913 of what remained of the Wallace collection in the rue Lafitte house (after the bequest of Manchester Square house and its contents to England) from the heir of Sir John Murray-Scott, Lady Sackville-West, taking all the risks of a lawsuit. Alexandre Pradère

Christie's. TASTE OF THE ROYAL COURT: IMPORTANT FRENCH FURNITURE AND WORKS OF ART FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, 9 July 2015, London, King Street

A Louis XVI ormolu-mounted tulipwood, amaranth, sycamore, holly and mosaic parquetry table àécrire. By Martin Carlin, circa 1775, retailed by the marchand-ébéniste Nicholas-Pierre Severin. Estimate: £400,000-600,000 ($622,400 - $933,600). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The rectangular sliding top with canted breakfront angles, inlaid overall with square trellis parquetry filled with spiral rosettes within a rosette-filled entrelac border, with a three-quarter gallery, rosette and cabochon moulded edge above a sanded panelled border, above a frieze drawer enclosing a scarlet silk velvet-lined hinged compartment flanked by hinged side compartments inlaid with rosette-filled trellis parquetry, the panelled frieze with stiff-leaf borders and centred by tablets within stiff-leaf and sanded borders, the canted angles applied with rosettes, on brass-fluted octagonal tapering legs filled with chandelles, headed by waisted foliate collars and with conforming stiff-leaf sabots, stamped to the underside M.C..., JME, twice N.P. SEVERIN and five times IF, the escutcheons 18th-century but associated, originally fitted with a mechanical action; 28 1/8 in. (71.5 cm.) high; 30 3/8 in. (77 cm.) wide; 17 ¼ in. (44 cm.) deep

Provenance:  Almost certainly bought by Thomas, 2nd Marquess of Bath (1765-1837) for Longleat, Wiltshire and by descent at Longleat; sold Christie's, London, 13 June 2002, lot 310.

Literature: 1869 Inventory, The Marchioness' Sitting Room: ‘A Louis XVI parqueterie writing table with drawer and writing slide ormolu and mounting’. 
1896 Inventory (2nd Marquess' Heirlooms), f 79 r Drawing Room, ‘A 2 ft. 6 in. oblong-shaped inlaid satinwood and kingwood lady's writing table fitted drawer velvet-lined writing flap, pierced gilt-brass gallery, gilt enrichments on reeded legs top inlaid squares with tulip border’. 
H. Granville Fell (ed.), The Connoisseur Year Book, 1951, London, p. 44, fig. XII.
P. Verlet, French Furniture and Interior Decoration of the 18th Century, London, 1967, pp. 189-190, fig. 157.
G. de Bellaigue, The James de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, Fribourg, 1974, no. 75, pp. 374, rev. ed. p. 131.
M. Aldrich, ‘The Marquess and the Decorator’, Country Life, 7 December 1989, p. 167, fig. 9.
S. Morris, ‘Lives of Bath’, The Antique Collector, December 1993/January 1994, p. 31.

The Longleat table àécrire by Carlin

Martin Carlin, maître in 1766. 
Nicolas-Pierre Severin, maître in 1757. 

This jewel-like table, retaining almost all of its original highlighted engraving to the marquetry, is a masterpiece by Martin Carlin. It dates from the mid-1770s/early 1780s when Carlin supplied some of his finest work to the greatest collectors of the day, through the marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier. 

MARTIN CARLIN AND NICOLAS-PIERRE SEVERIN 
Until offered in the Longleat sale in 2002, only the stamp of the less well-known marchand-ébéniste Nicolas-Pierre Severin had been noted on this table. However, the table is of a form perfected by Carlin and detailed examination in 2002 revealed his elusive stamp. Although Carlin's stamp is not obliterated entirely, it is sufficiently indistinct, suggesting that Severin may have disguised it when retailing the table. After receiving his maîtrise in 1757, Severin became a marchand-ébéniste, not only specialising in the production and restoration of furniture but also serving in the role of dealer and specialising in the resale of furniture. It is known Severin sold Boulle furniture and it is very likely he would have purchased works of other furniture-makers to retail as well, including Carlin. 

RELATED TABLES BY CARLIN 
With its breakfront treatment of the panelled frieze, octagonal fluted tapering legs with gadrooned capitals, upspringing chandelles above stiff-leaf and acanthus-cup sabots often with castors, this example belongs to an exceptional group of tables. All executed by Carlin, apparently exclusively for the marchands-merciers, particularly Simon-Philippe Poirier (1720-85) and his successor Dominique Daguerre (d. 1796), this group is embellished with either Sèvres porcelain or marquetry. 
Of these, the earliest and most expensive example, mounted with Sèvres porcelain plaques, was sold by Poirier to madame du Barry in 1772 for 5,500 livres ; it was later in the collection of Queen Maria-Carolina of Naples, and is now in the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (P. Coutinho, 18th Century French Furniture, Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, 1999, no. 25, pp. 241-253). A second example, with obliterated stamp and Sèvres porcelain plaques dated 1778, was sold anonymously at Sotheby's, New York, 5 November 1998, lot 462 ($2,972,500). In that Poirier, and after 1777 his successor Daguerre, enjoyed a virtual monopoly over the purchase of porcelain plaques produced at the Sèvres manufactory for furniture, it is fair to assume that this was ordered by Daguerre. A third table of this form, decorated in a marquetry of linked ovals enclosing foliate lozenges and stamped by Carlin, is in the Widener Collection at the National Gallery of Art, Washington (Acc. no. C-278). 
Three further tables by Carlin of similar form are known, but with variations in the mounts and surmounted by exceptional specimen marble tops are known. Of these, one decorated with Japanese lacquer was sold from the collection of the late André Meyer, Christie's, New York, 26 October 2001, lot 50 ($1,431,500); another, decorated in Louis XVI 'Boulle' marquetry, was sold from the collection of Francis Guérault, Paris, 31 March 1935, lot 96; and the last, decorated in ebony, was sold from the collection of Jacques Doucet, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 7-8 June, 1912, lot 333, and later in the collection of Jean Rossignol, sold Artcurial, Paris, 13 December 2005, lot 132, (€3,100,959). 

LONGLEAT 
Longleat, Wiltshire has been the seat of the Thynne family since 1541. It is widely considered to be one of the greatest achievements in Elizabethan architecture in England and the first stately home to reveal its full magnificence to the general public, when it opened in 1947. After the original priory was destroyed by a fire in 1567, Sir John Thynne (1515-1580) is thought to have employed the architect Robert Smythson to design the building we recognise today, which took twelve years to complete. Alterations were carried out in 1707 by Christopher Wren under the instruction of 1st Viscount of Weymouth, who added the Best Gallery, Long Gallery, Old Library and Chapel. Sir Jeffry Wyatville, noted for his work on Chatsworth House and Windsor Castle, carried out further modernisations by completing the north façade, constructing a new stable block and remodelling the interior of the house under the direction of Thomas Thynne, the 2nd Marquess of Bath (1765-1837). 
As a result of these various stages of internal alterations, little in the collection remains from the 16th Century, with the exception of several important pictures and around fifty books and manuscripts. Much of the current collection was acquire by the 2nd Viscount Weymouth, the 2nd Marquess of Bath and by his grandson the 4th Marquess of Bath. Although the 2nd Marquess was full of antiquarian enthusiasm for oak and old 'buhl' he did not neglect the contemporary, and following the Peace of Amiens in 1802-1803, he followed the flock of fellow British collectors to Paris to acquire previously unobtainable objects whilst there was a brief respite in hostilities. It certainly appears that in the 1820s Lord Bath had an agent operating on his behalf in Paris, acquiring furniture and objects of the ancien régime. This is almost certainly the route by which he acquired this beautiful mosaic parquetry table àécrire by Martin Carlin. 
It remained at Longleat until Christie’s were entrusted to offer a superb group of paintings, furniture, books and manuscripts, silver and porcelain for sale in order to provide a maintenance fund to secure the fabric of the house, gardens and estate as well as the integrity of the major part of the collections in perpetuity. 

Christie's. TASTE OF THE ROYAL COURT: IMPORTANT FRENCH FURNITURE AND WORKS OF ART FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, 9 July 2015, London, King Street

Le bracelet haute joaillerie en diamants et émeraude taille carrée d'Alexandre Vauthier pour Mellerio dits Meller.

La mono boucle d'oreille en diamants et émeraude taille carrée d'Alexandre Vauthier pour Mellerio dits Meller.

La mono boucle d'oreille Alexandre Vauthier pour Mellerio dits Meller @ Mathieu César Production Iconoclast

La mono boucle d'oreille transformée en collier Alexandre Vauthier pour Mellerio dits Meller @ Mathieu César Production Iconoclast

La mono boucle d'oreille Alexandre Vauthier pour Mellerio dits Meller @ Mathieu César Production Iconoclast

Nuun. Manchette « Orchidée » en or rose, rubis (6 cts), saphirs roses (23,90 cts), spinelles (11,3 cts) et spessartite (3,82 cts). 

MONTE-CARLO - L’Hôtel L’Hermitage de Monte-Carlo accueille le 30 juillet 2015 à 14h une vente aux enchères unique, organisée par la maison Boule, qui réunira les plus grands noms de la joaillerie de la place Vendôme et de Bond Street.

La vente proposera notamment deux pièces uniques de la collection Ombre et Lumière de Nuun : le bracelet Orchidée et la bague Thé vert.

Parfaite illustration du défi artistique et artistique de Nuun, le bracelet Orchidée est une des pièces maitresses de la vente : 3 artisans sertisseurs ont travaillé pendant 20 jours à poser délicatement les 2 278 pierres, tandis que la tige a demandé 10 mois de recherche et de travail afin d’obtenir une souplesse et une légèreté parfaites mais aussi la force de tenir la majestueuse fleur.

Du 27 au 30 juillet, les bijoux seront exposés dans les salons Trianon et Jardin d’Hiver de l’Hermitage. La vente s’ouvrira le 30 à 14h00.

Nuun. « Thé Vert » ring in yellow gold, spessartites (4,37 cts) and yellow sapphires (1,43 cts).

On July 30th, the Hotel Hermitage will host an exclusive high jewellery and watches auction, to be organised by the Monaco house Boule Auctions. It will include unique pieces by the most famous brands on Place Vendôme and Bond Street.

The auction will feature two unique pieces by Nuun Jewels: the amazing Orchidée bracelet and the stunning Thé Vert ring from the “Light and Shadow” collection.

The Orchidée bracelet is a unique example of Nuun’s dazzling craftsmanship and designs: it took 20 days for the three stone setters to set the 2,278 gems. The stem itself required 10 months of research and work to achieve the bracelet’s perfect lightness and flexibility without compromising the strength required to hold the flower head.

All pieces to be auctioned will be exhibited from the 27th to the 30th of July, in the Salon Triano and in the Salon Jardin d’Hiver at the Hermitage. The catalogue is also available online. The auction will open at 2:00pm on Thursday the 30th.

Claude Montana, automne-hiver 1993-1994. Veste oversize en vison curry et col de renard colza, pièce unique. Estimation 2,500 — 3,000 EUR. Lot. Vendu 3,750 EUR Photo: Sotheby"s.

Claude Montana, A/W 1993-94. An over-sized chartreuse mink jacket with deep fox collar

Provenance: Garde-robe de Madame Wallis Montana, épouse du créateur

Bibliographie: Claude Montana et Marielle Cro, Montana, L’Editeur, Paris, 2010, p. 181.

Claude Montana, automne-hiver 1993-1994.

Sotheby's. Rencontres Couture à Paris de la Collection Didier Ludot, 8 juillet 2015

A late Louis XV ormolu-mounted Chinese celadon crackle-glazed porcelain two-handled vase. The mounts attributed to Jean-Claude-Thomas Duplessis, circa 1770, the porcelain 18th century. Estimate: £700,000-1,000,000 ($1,089,200 - $1,556,000). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The domed lid formed of an inverted shallow dish surmounted by a foliate and egg-and-dart cast cover with berried finial, flanked by twinned square-section panelled handles with pinecone bosses and foliate patera finials, issuing from a Greek-key frieze, above a fluted-and-dart lip hung with with oak leaf and acorn swags, on a fluted and cabochon guilloche socle and square base, one garland with differing chasing and possibly replaced, the porcelain body covered in an even celadon glaze suffused with a dense network of dark grey and finer russet crackles; 18 in. (45.5 cm.) high; 14 in. (35.5 cm.) wide; 11 5/8 in. (29.5 cm.) deep 

Provenance: Acquired by Duke Albert (1738-1822) and the Archduchess Marie-Christine (1742-1798) de Saxe-Teschen, château de Laeken. 
Galerie Segoura, Paris. 
The Collection of Hossein Qizilbash; sold Christie's, Paris, 19 December 2007, lot 803. 

The Saxe Teschen celadon vase

DUKE ALBERT OF SAXE-TESCHEN 
Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen (1738-1822) was the youngest son of August III of Poland, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. He was educated at the court in Dresden and embarked on a military career. In 1766, he married Archduchess Marie-Christine of Habsburg-Lorraine (1742-1798), favourite daughter of Empress Maria-Theresa and elder sister of Marie Antoinette. His marriage secured him a considerable fortune, which enabled him to form an extraordinary collection, renowned both for its quality and quantity. The Duke and Archduchess were joint governors of the Southern Netherlands from 1780 to 1792 and were based at the château de Laeken, near Brussels. 

A key figure who assisted the duke in forming his collections was the Austrian ambassador to Venice, comte Durazzo (1717-1794), whom the duke met in 1773. The ambassador encouraged the duke to collect on a grand scale and to establish a collection ‘qui soit au service d’une cause plus noble que les autre collection et qui sache flatter des yeux, tout en développant l’esprit’. The influence of French encyclopaedists, especially d’Alembert, was significant for this vision. In 1775-76, the duke and archduchess carried out a Grand Tour to Italy, which also matured their tastes for collecting. In mid-1776, after two years of continuous purchases, their collection already numbered thirty-thousand items, but this would increase dramatically and during subsequent landmark sales such as Basan, Crozat and d’Argentville numerous important purchases were made. With a budget of one million, two hundred thousand florins dedicated to purchases of works of art, the duke was one of the wealthiest collectors in the second half of the 18th Century. 

Travelling under the name comte and comtesse de Bely, the duke and archduchess travelled to Paris in 1786, especially to purchase works of art. Correspondence with her sister Queen Marie Antoinette reveals that they visited the celebrated marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre (d. 1796) in the same year. Interestingly, they received a Gobelins tapestry from the King. Later, two important transactions would mark the history of the collection: the purchase of eight hundred drawings from Prince Charles-Antoine de Ligne and the exchange of drawings and engravings with the Imperial Library in 1796. Part of these collections now form the nucleus of the rich collections of works on paper of the Albertina, their Vienna residence, which they established on their return to Austria. 

THE SAXE-TESCHEN ALBUM OF DRAWINGS 
The present vase features in the so-called Saxe-Teschen album, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (F. Watson, Mounted Oriental Porcelain, Washington, 1986, p. 126) depicting works of art from the collection of the Duke and Archduchess of Saxe-Teschen. The drawings are dedicated to the decorative arts and include luxurious French furniture, oriental porcelain, both mounted and unmounted, clocks and various other categories. Some of the drawings are finished, others are unfinished, and the exact origin of the ensemble of drawings remains unclear. The depicted works of art are of different dates, some in the rococo style, others in bold goût grec, such as the present vase, and further items in a pure neo-classical style, suggesting that these drawings, or at least some of them, were not preparatory drawings, but rather are drawings of a group or part of an existing collection. Watson discusses that some drawings of porcelain-mounted furniture were perhaps used by the marchands-merciers Simon-Philippe Poirier (d. 1785) and his successor Dominique Daguerre to show items from their stock to clients or alternatively these may have been of items already in their collection at Laeken. 

The present vase features on a plate depicting four items of porcelain where it is numbered XXI. It is surmounted by a description which notes the figuring of the celadon porcelain very precisely: ‘Cette pièce est de la même espèce de porcelaine, mais d’un blanc tirant un peu plus sur un gré bleuâtre, et dont les rayes ou crevasses sont moins rapproches, elle est pareillement montée en bronze’. It is flanked by no. XX, a more highly-finished drawing of a large baluster-shaped vase with florid rococo mounts, which is very similar to a vase in the Louvre. The latter has mounts bearing the ‘C’ couronné poinçon tax mark, employed on any alloy containing copper from March 1745 to February 1749, proving an approximate date for the execution of this vase. Interestingly, this places the two vases, nos. XX and XXI, although depicted on the same plate, more than twenty years apart. A further drawing in the album, numbered XIII, is of a monumental vase executed around 1765-70 with lion masks and which is known in at least three versions. One was sold from the collection of Karl Lagerfeld, Christie’s, Monaco, 28 April 2000, lot 350. 

MOUNTS BY DUPLESSIS 
The bold and beautifully-chased mounts of the present vase have generally been attributed to the maître fondeur Jean-Claude-Thomas Duplessis (d. 1783). Son of Jean-Claude Chambellan Duplessis (d. 1774), bronzier and orfèvre du Roi, Jean-Claude-Thomas is first mentioned in 1752 when he was assisting his father in making models for the porcelain manufactory at Vincennes. In 1765 he is registered as maître fondeur en terre et sable. His father seems to have been active until circa 1763 after which date he does not seem to have had any real workshop. Bronzes made during the mid-1760s may therefore be considered as a collaboration of father and son including, for instance, those for the celebrated Bureau du Roi executed by Jean-Francois Oeben (d. 1763) and Jean-Henri Riesener (d. 1806) between 1760 and 1769 (S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France, London, 1974, pp. 174-175). This monumental and richly-mounted bureau is embellished with a mixture of ‘antique’ bronzes such as garlands, vases and ribbon-twist in combination with earlier motifs such as the scrolling candle-branches in sweeping and sinuous shapes characteristic of Duplessis’ oeuvre. 
Duplessis père and fils’ principle clients were some of the most illustrious amateurs of the 18th Century and included, besides Louis XV, Lazare Duvaux, Augustin Blondel de Gagny and Laurent Grimod de la Reynière. Vases were a significant part of the oeuvre of Duplessis fils and he published two series of vases in 1775-80 (P. Verlet, Les bronzes dorés français du XVIII siècle, Paris, 1999, p. 415) and the Almanach des Artistes of 1777 lists that he was a ‘bon dessinateur’ and ‘travaille d’apres ses dessins’. 

GUAN-TYPE GLAZED PORCELAIN 
The Guan-type glaze used on this vase imitates the Guanyao glaze from the Song period. The application of Song-type celadon glazes to porcelain was an aspect of archaism seen at the court of the Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors during the 18th Century and started at the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen in the early Ming dynasty. It was one of several archaistic trends that continued into the Qing reigns. 

CHATEAU DE LAEKEN 
Known as Schoonenberg in the 18th Century, the château de Laeken was built between 1782 and 1785 to the designs of the celebrated Parisian architect Charles de Wailly (d. 1798). The imposing neo-classical building divided in five bays was surmounted by a dome above the central pavilion. The interiors were executed by the sculptor, architect and designer Gilles-Paul Cauvet (d. 1788), who worked extensively for the comte de Provence and directed the Académie de St Luc, the guild of sculptors. The refined and luxurious interiors created by Cauvet in the latest ‘antique’ fashion of the 1780s were a sophisticated backdrop for the superb collections of the Duke and Archduchess of Saxe-Teschen. Napoleon acquired the château in 1804 and established an Imperial residence and since 1830 Laeken has become one of the residences of the Kings of Belgium. 

Christie's. TASTE OF THE ROYAL COURT: IMPORTANT FRENCH FURNITURE AND WORKS OF ART FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, 9 July 2015, London, King Street

A Louis XV ormolu-mounted Chinese flambé-glazed porcelain vase. The mounts attributed to Jean-Claude Chambellan Duplessis, circa 1755, the porcelain second quarter 18th century. Estimate: £600,000-1,000,000 ($933,600 - $1,556,000).  Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The vase mounted with vigorously scrolling flared neck and paired acanthus handles, the base cast with scrolling acanthus, rocaille, shells and flowerheads, with fragmentary blue-bordered paper label to the inside of the neck inscribed …6 / ..le…; 20 ¼ in. (51.5 cm.) high; 11 7/8 in. (30 cm.) wide; 10 1/8 in. (25.5 cm.) deep

Provenance:  Almost certainly Jean-Baptiste de Machault d'Arnouville (1701-1794), Contrôleur Général des Finances, Garde des Sceaux, Secrétaire d'Etat à la Marine and by descent to his son 
Charles-Henri-Louis de Machault d'Arnouville (1747-1830), Maréchal de Camp, who by his marriage in 1773 to Angélique de Baussan acquired the château de Thoiry; 
Almost certainly by descent to Henriette de Machault d'Arnouville (1808-1864) who in 1826 married Léonce Melchior, Marquis de Vogüé (1805-1877), hôtel de Vogüé on rue Fabert, Paris and by descent to 
Solange de Vogüé, wife of Antoine, Comte de la Panouse, château de Thoiry; sold Sotheby’s, Monaco, 11 February 1979, lot 232a. 

The Machault d’Arnouville flambé vase

This spectacular vase is a masterpiece of the art of mounting porcelain perfected by marchands-merciers such as Lazare Duvaux and Thomas-Joachim Hébert in the 1740s and 1750s. It unites superbly cast and chased gilt-bronzes attributed to the chief designer and sculpteur at Sèvres Jean-Claude Chambellan Duplessis, with a rare and stunning vase of flambé-glazed Chinese porcelain. It is likely to have been owned by Jean Baptiste de Machault d’Arnouville, one of the most powerful men in France under Louis XV and a confidante of Madame de Pompadour, who was a passionate collector of porcelain and lacquer.

COMTE JEAN-BAPTISTE DE MACHAULT D’ARNOUVILLE
Jean-Baptiste de Machault d'Arnouville (1701-1794), a favourite minister of Louis XV, was appointed Contrôleur Général des Finances on 29 November 1750 to 1757 and as a result was one of the most powerful men at the French court. He was close friend of Madame du Pompadour, who shared his passion for collecting decorative arts, and whom she often consulted before making purchases. As Contrôleur Général he was responsible for the administration of the Royal Porcelain Factory at Vincennes, which relocated to Sèvres in 1756, and took particular interest in the development of new techniques, the sourcing of new models imported from the East, and the bronziers linked to the factory, who created gilt-bronze mounts to adorn specific models of vases. Such was his interest that for several years it was recorded that he received a special annual present from the factory (V. Pruchniki, Arnouville, Le château des Machault au XVIIIè siècle, Paris, 2013, p. 77.) 

In 1750 Machault inherited land from his father, and inspired by the duc de Saint-Simon’s château La Ferté-Vidame, he employed Pierre Contant d’Ivry (1698-1777), Architecte du Roi, to create château d’Arnouville with an impressive budget of four million livres. His impeccable taste and interest led him to buy masterpieces from some of the greatest craftsmen of the day: lacquer furniture by BVRB, bronzes by Susini, silver by François-Thomas-Germain and an armoire which featured in the 1736 inventory of the marchand-ébéniste Noël Gérard, which is now at Versailles. But it is for his important collection of ormolu-mounted European and Chinese porcelain that he is perhaps best known, several stunning examples of which were published by Pruchnicki (ibid., pp. 45-49). 

It is likely that he acquired the present vase at the height of this project, circa 1755, to furnish his splendid new home. The inventories taken at the end of the Revolution have quite succinct descriptions but it is fascinating to find the following entry listed in the chambre du ministre: un vase de porcelaine des Indes jaspée bleue et blanc avec anses, gouleau et pieds de bronze doré d’or moulu portant dix sept pouces de haut. The language used to describe colours and glazes has evolved over the centuries and it is possible that the ‘Indes jaspee bleue’ is an 18th-century reference to the fact that the flambé glaze has the appearance of jasper. An alternative origin for the vase and a further indication of the similar tastes of Machault and Madame de Pompadour is an intriguing entry in the Livre-Journal of Lazare Duvaux for December 1753 - 1607. Mme. la Marq. de pompadour: Deux grands vases de porcleaine jaspée de rouge & bleu, montés en bronze ciselé& doré d’or moulu, 3,600 l. – Un autre vase, même porcelaine, monté sur quatre pieds & deux anses en bronze doré d’or moulu, le dessus orné de fleurs, 720 l. (L. Courajod, Livre-Journal de Lazare Duvaux, Marchand-Bijoutier Ordinaire du Roy, 1748-1758, Paris, 1873, vol. II, no. 1607). The description and sheer cost of these vases clearly represent an important and luxurious commission and could conceivably indicate that the present vase was a gift from la Favorite to Machault. 

Machault withdrew from political life in 1757, following his dispute with Madame du Pompadour, and whilst his official revenues ceased the collection was still added to after his retirement – he continued to receive annual gifts from Sèvres until 1768. A fascinating insight into royal patronage is that he only received the Gobelins tapestries accorded to him by Louis XV as the Garde des Sceaux in 1783, more than a quarter of a century after his retirement (ibid., pp. 38-82).

Much of Machault’s collection was inherited by his granddaughter, Henriette Marie Maguerite de Machault d’ Arnouville (1808-1864), who also inherited château de Thoiry from her mother Angélique Baussan (1752-1813). Rather than house her collection at château de Thoiry she and her husband Léonce Melchior, Marquis de Vogüé (1805-1877) instead chose to build hôtel de Vogüé on rue Fabert, Paris, completed in 1868. Although the exterior was relatively modest, the interiors were incredibly luxurious and conceived in the latest fashion. It is almost certain that the present vase, proudly displayed on the far left console table in the Salon Seine, was amongst the items Henriette inherited from her paternal grandfather. 

Henriette’s great-granddaughter Solange de Vogüé (1920-2003), married Antoine, Comte de la Panouse (1914-2006) in 1942. The couple resided at château de Thoiry, from where the present vase was sold at Sotheby’s, Monaco, 11 February 1979, lot 232a.

THE GLAZE 
This rare example of a flambé glazed vase, from either the Yongzheng (1722-1735) or Qianlong reigns (1735-1799) demonstrates the imperial demand for vibrant new ceramic glaze colours. It was almost certainly developed under the supervision of the renowned kiln director Tang Ying (1682-1756), who was sent by the Imperial Household to the porcelain capital Jingdezhen in 1728, and officially appointed Director of the Kilns in 1736. 
Although clearly inspired by the splashed purple and blue glazes of Jun wares of the Jin (265-420) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, the process of applying multiple glazes to one vessel to achieve the flambé glaze was a far more sophisticated technique. Song dynasty potters only used a single glaze with copper applied to the surface in places, but for the flambé glaze several different glazes with different consistencies were used, but it was essential that all of these glazes would fire at the same temperature. The complicated scientific nature of the process required tenacity and innovation in order to discover the perfect combination of glaze consistency, tone and firing time. The vivid, rich beauty of the present vase is testament to the triumph of their labour and ingenuity. 

THE ATTRIBUTION TO DUPLESSIS 
Duplessis' career was illustrious and he is recorded as a sculptor, ceramics modeller, goldsmith, and bronzier working in the rocaille manner. Despite the fact that Duplessis is today recognised as one of the most talented and influential designers and bronziers of his day there has not yet been any serious study of his oeuvre and only a few pieces can be firmly attributed to him, including a pair of ormolu braziers commissioned by Jean-Baptiste Machault d'Arnouville for royal presentation in 1742 to the Ambassador of Turkey; one of which is today at the Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul, demonstrating how early in his career Machault developed close links with Duplessis. With limited documented examples or indeed patterns available, attention has turned to designs for porcelain during the period 1748 to 1774, when Duplessis was artistic director at Vincennes and its successor, Sèvres. Of particular interest are thebalustre rocaille vases made in soft and hard paste porcelain from circa 1750, which were named after him – 'Vase Duplessis'. A drawing of this design survives in the Sèvres archive (L.H. Roth, C. Le Corbeiller, French Eighteenth-Century Porcelain at the Wadsworth Atheneum; The J. Pierpont Morgan Collection, p. 105, fig. 59-1). Examples of these porcelain vases are at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (24.214.5) and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (C.357-1909). A pair in the Indianapolis Museum of Art (1993.63) is applied with gilt-bronze mounts. In the early 1990s, the art historian Ted Dell, extrapolating from Duplessis' vases for Vincennes and Sèvres, recognised Duplessis' craftsmanship in the bold Louis XV gilt-bronze mounts of a pair of dark blue Chinese porcelain vases in the Frick Collection (15.8.43-44) and tentatively suggested that the latter were part of a core group with closely comparable gilt-bronze mounts, circa 1755-60, that appear to be made by the same hand (T. Dell, The Frick Collection, Furniture and Gilt Bronzes, vol. VI, Princeton, 1992, pp. 309-314). 

The present example falls into this group, demonstrating many of the recognisable characteristics of Duplessis' style, such as the homogenous unity of form and decoration, suggesting that the mounts were made specifically for the vase, and the substantial and symmetrical acanthus scroll mounts of the highest quality illustrate the superb modelling and chasing for which Duplessis is renowned. Another notable feature is the number of different surface finishes, with matt, semi-matt and burnished, as well as a variety of particularly naturalistic treatments that are used to intensify shadows and light to create a naturalistic and fluid effect (G. Sadde, 'Jean-Claude Duplessis, la liberté du style rocaille',L'Estampille-L'Objet d'Art, no. 392, June 2004, pp. 42-51). 

The boldly scrolling acanthus mounts that wrap around the body of this vase are identical to those found on a magnificent pair of hexagonal baluster-shaped blue Chinese porcelain bottle-necked vases in the Royal Collection. Formerly in the Entrance Hall at Brighton Pavilion, they were recorded in the 1829 Inventory as, 'A pair of Hexagon blue ground jars, mounted in very fine scroll leaf lips, handles and bases of ormolu, one foot seven and a half inches' (RCIN 262), and were transferred to Buckingham Palace in March 1847. This royal pair must have been acquired by the Prince Regent, later King George IV, who as a passionate connoisseur and collector significantly added to the Royal Collection of ormolu-mounted oriental porcelain. Both these and another large hard-paste porcelain flower vase at Windsor Castle with closely-related ormolu mounts, have been attributed to Duplessis. The single vase is documented to have been sold in 1751 by the marchand-mercier, Lazare Duvaux to Madame de Pompadour (ibid., p. 46). 

Duplessis owed his position and success to a number of influential patrons, including the well-connected Victor-Amédée de Savoie, Prince de Carignan, as well as Marc-René de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson, marquis de Voyer. While Duplessis held no official title and never received his maîtrise, he was widely recognised as such due to the protection and accessibility to royal circles that patronage provided. By 1758 he was listed as Orfèvre du Roi in the Sèvres account books. In his early career as a bronzier, Duplessis worked through the intermediary of marchands-merciers, who specialised in ormolu-mounted objects employing the services of a bronzier as required. A number of entries in theLivre-journal of the marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux show that Duplessis was regularly engaged to provide mounts for Chinese porcelain referred to as celadon in the day books for the Marquis de Voyer, Monsieur Gaignat and Madame de Pompadour (L. Courajod, Livre-Journal de Lazare Duvaux, Marchand-Bijoutier Ordinaire du Roy, 1748-1758, Paris, 1873, tome II, nos. 601, 1713 and 1810). One entry for the Marquis de Voyer describes 'Deux gros vases de porcelain celadon, montées par Duplessis en bronze doré d'or moulu' at a cost of 3,000 l., a vast sum that illustrates the importance of the commission. After several years his reputation had spread and aristocratic clients such as Augustin Blondel de Gagny and the duc de Chaulnes approached him directly. As an independent bronzier, Duplessis would not only have supplied the mounts but also the porcelain. To replenish his stock of oriental porcelain he frequented the Parisian salerooms, acquiring in 1767 from the collection of Jean de Jullienne 'pots pourris de porcelain d'ancien japon' and 'un grand vase de porcelain de Chine', the total bill coming to 3800 livres.

VASES WITH COMPARABLE MOUNTS 
The very distinctive scrolling foliate mounts permit this vase to be seen as one of a small group of vases, with virtually identical mounts:

-The aforementioned vases in the Royal Collection
- A Clair-de-lune porcelain vase sold by the order of the executors of the late 7th Earl of Harewood, K.B.E, Christie’s, London, 5 July 2012, lot 29 for £1,161,250. 
-Another from the same collection was sold Christie’s, London, 1 July 1965, lot 49, then with Roesenberg & Steibel, New York (F.J.B Watson, Mounted Oriental Porcelain, Washington D.C., 1986, no. 29). 
-A garniture of three vases with almost identical mounts was formerly in the Collection of Léon Levy, sold Sotheby's, Paris, 2 October 2008, lot 37. 
-Another pair, possibly supplied by the London dealer, E.H. Baldock of Hanway Street, is in the Collection of the Duke of Buccleuch at Bowhill ('Bowhill', Country Life, 19 June 1975, p. 1620, fig. 5). 
-Other comparable vases are at the Musée Nissim de Camondo, and at Waddesdon Manor (G. de Bellaigue, Furniture, Clocks and Gilt Bronzes, vol. II, 1974, p. 764). A further pair, described as 19th century, is at Tatton Park, Cheshire (National Trust inventory no. 1296815.1; P. Ferguson, ‘An Eclectic taste for ormolu mounted ceramics at Tatton Park, Cheshire', Antiques, June 2008, pp. 72-79). 

Christie's. TASTE OF THE ROYAL COURT: IMPORTANT FRENCH FURNITURE AND WORKS OF ART FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, 9 July 2015, London, King Street

An early Louis XV ormolu-mounted bois satiné and amaranth bureau plat (bureau à espagnolettes bouclées). By Charles Cressent  circa 1738-45. Estimate: £1,000,000-1,500,000 ($1,556,000 - $2,334,000). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The rectangular top with gilt-tooled leather writing-surface within a moulded border and with shell-cast mounts to the corners, above a quarter-veneered serpentine frieze with a leather-lined slide to the left side, five walnut-lined drawers to the front and opposing false drawers to the reverse, all with simulated-panelled border mounts, the central drawer with an escutcheon cast with a shell issuing acanthus, flanked by foliate and rocaille-cast bearded mask crescentmounts concealing secret drawers, the outer drawers with acanthus scroll handles, the ends mounted with smiling bearded young men with feathered caps within confronting C-scroll cartouches, the cabriole legs headed with ‘espagnolette’ chutes, two depicting an older woman and two a younger woman, with C-scroll and rocaille cast lion’s-paw feet, the underside of the bureau and the side of the right drawer stencilled GM / E and 9897, the right drawer also inscribed '201' in red chalk, with blue-bordered paper label inscribed '9843' and with further inventory label printed ‘No.’ and inscribed in ink '9843', the left drawer with similar label and fragments of a blue-bordered label, the underside with label inscribed '9843' and stamped '2' to underside of one drawer, the clasp to the reverse is a contemporary aftercast, two handles and the locks early 20th century, originally with a serre-papiers; 30 ½ in. (77.5 cm.) high; 81 in. (205.5 cm.) wide, excluding slide; 38 in. (96.5 cm.) deep

Provenance:  Possibly Emmanuell-Jacques Gaillard de Gagny (1703-1759), the sale of his Cabinet de Feu, Paris, 29 March 1762, lot 57 (the description corresponds either to this bureau or to the Louvre example). 
Paris Art Market, circa 1890 and then in 1913. 
Acquired by Jacques Seligmann (1858-1923), circa 1900-1920, and by descent to his son 
François-Gérard Seligmann (1912-1999), antique dealer and collector, half-brother of Germain Seligmann and nephew of Arnold Seligmann. 
Confiscated by the Nazi authorities during the Second World War.
Sold in 1944 to M. Quoniam, preempted by the Mobilier National (and marked GME 9897) and restituted to the Seligmann family in 1945.
sold by the Fondation Seligmann.
Private Collection, Paris.

Literature: A. Pradère, Charles Cressent, Paris, 2003, pp. 129 & 268, cat. 57.

The Cressent ‘Bureau a Espagnolettes Bouclees’

‘Celui-ci doit avoir sa place parmi les grands artistes français. Cressent É a succédéà la réputation du fameux Boulle dont le nom ne mourra jamais’ L’Abbe Raynal, Nouvelles Littéraires, 1749

This spectacular bureau plat is a masterpiece of Charles Cressent (1685-1767), who ranks with Boulle, Riesener and Gouthière as among the most famous craftsmen of the 18th Century and one of the select few to be mentioned by name in sale catalogues and inventories of the period, such was the fame of his work. He was trained as a sculptor, and in contravention of guild regulations chased and gilded bronzes in his own workshop, which enabled him to exercise an unrivalled artistic synthesis of bronzes and cabinet-making. Cressent’s fame rests largely on the extraordinarily sculptural quality of his gilt-bronze mounts, and his work, always sought after by elite collectors, has never gone out of fashion. 

GROUPING CRESSENT’S BUREAUX PLATS 
Cressent’s bureaux plats have become the most representative features of his work, the most present in great decorative arts collections and museums. Early models (à têtes de chinoises or espagnolettes coiffées d’aigrettes) are in the J.P. Getty Museum, the National Gallery of Washington, Cincinatti Art Museum, the Huntington Collection in San Marino and the château de Versailles. With their lines and bronze corner mounts strongly influenced by Boulle, they are datable to circa 1720-1730. A second group of amaranth bureaux of about the same period and again reminiscent of Boulle includes two bureaux at Waddesdon Manor, one at Versailles and one in the Wallace Collection, London (cat. F.11). 

The Seligmann bureau, which is identical to the one in the Louvre, is one of his most important works and a landmark in the history of styles and the evolution of the bureaux plats. It belongs to Cressent’s mature production when, free from the influence of Boulle, he developed a quiet rococo style with thinner legs, asymmetrical corner mounts and a soft serpentine movement that would become the trademark of almost all Louis XV bureaux. The group includes three smaller bureaux, one in the Residenz in Munich (inv. M14), another in the National Gallery of Art, Washington (C.276) and a third in a private collection in Paris. Three more desks belong to the same stage in the development of the bureaux, although slightly more rococo and with antique warrior heads on the corners: the one in the French Republic Presidents’ office at the Elysée Palace, the one at Grimsthorpe and the one in the Gulbenkian museum, Lisbon. On these desks, which are veneered mostly with bois satiné on the drawer fronts and sides, the mounts are detached on bands of amaranth which enhance their outlines, a stylistic invention that must probably be credited to Cressent. On Cressent’s larger bureaux such as the Seligmann and the Louvre examples but also on the Getty and Béhague ones, the mounts with bearded masks on each side of the central drawer conceal a narrow and deep secret drawer, again an invention of Cressent. 

THE QUESTION OF A SERRE-PAPIERS WITH DIANA AND THE HOUNDS 
Most of Cressent’s bureaux have nowadays lost their serre-papiers. However, originally, they all had a matching serre-papiers, as can be noted in the descriptions of the three sales of his stock in 1749, 1757, 1765, as well as in the sale catalogues of the time in which Cressent’s bureaux are mentioned. Indeed, one can see the trace of the position of such a serre-papiers on the long side of this bureau. Such a strange position is not unique, as we can see with the Richelieu bureau at Grimsthorpe (Pradère, op. cit., p. 131) which has a serre-papiers with the group of Diana and the hounds sitting on the long side without the lower structure. It is more than likely that the Seligmann desk had a serre-papierswith Diana, similar to the one in the Louvre and the one at Grimsthorpe. A bureau with the same corner mounts as the Seligmann one and the Louvre one and with a serre-papiers with Diana and the hounds, is described in detail in the sale of M. Gaillard de Gagny in 1762: 

n°57. Un beau & riche Bureau en bois d'Amarante satiné, de 6 pieds de longueur [195cm] sur 2 pieds 11 pouces [95 cm] de large, garni d'une Pendule à cadran de cuivre cizelé, enchassée en haut du serre papier, de forme ceintrée La garniture, en bronze doré d'or moulu, est composée, en partie, d'une belle figure de Diane tenant son Arc, & un Amour au cors de chasse; ces deux figures de rond de bosse, sont dessus le serre-papier: un peu plus bas sur les côtés, un Sanglier qu'un chien tient par l'oreille , & un Cerf qu'un autre chien tient par la gorge: quatre belles têtes d'Espagnolette sont sur les côtés du Bureau ; des masques sur les tiroirs, et autres ornemens. Ce morceau d'ouvrage, est composé& exécuté avec beaucoup de solidité& de goût par le sieur Cressant . 

The description perfectly fits the Louvre example, however, its history is obscure before its entry in the French national collections and nothing proves that the description might not concern the Seligmann example just as well. All the more, since one knows three lonely serre-papiers of this model that have lost their matching bureaux: one in Grimsthorpe (99 cm. wide), one in the Wallace Collection, London (102.9 cm. wide) and one formerly in the Lonsdale collection (Pradère, ibid. p. 129, note 27 and p. 172), all without a lower structure, which could correspond to the shadows evident on the leather of the Seligmann bureau. 

DATING 
None of these desks has the ‘C’ couronné poinçon tax mark that was applied to alloys containing copper, which would date it circa 1745-1749, but the model with the warriors’ heads is described in the Cressent sale catalogue of 1747, therefore we know the series predates 1745. Also the rich mounts of the matching serre-papiers with Diana and the hounds were cast by the bronzier Confesseur and are described in his inventory of 1759 but not in his previous inventory of 1737. Therefore, if the matching serre-papiers is datable between 1738 and 1745, one must give the same dating to these desks. 

GAILLARD DE GAGNY 
Emmanuel-Jacques Gaillard de Gagny (1703-1759) was the son of Jean Gaillard la Bouëxière, seigneur de la Bouëxière et de Gagny, secrétaire du roi in 1719, who lived at château de Gagny. M. Gaillard de Gagny was himself appointedtrésorier général des maréchaussées in 1729 and was a Receveur Général des Finance de Grenoble by the time of his death. He appears in records as one of the key clients of the Parisian marchand-mercier Claude-François Julliot (1727-1794), who compiled the inventory of M. Gaillard de Gagny's impressive collection following his death in 1759. The sale of his collection was held three years later, the catalogue compiled by M. Remy. 

THE DESK ON THE PARIS MARKET AT THE BELLE EPOQUE 
A photo in the archives of Galerie Fabre, Paris show this bureau with (on the back) a written certificate signed by the dealer-connoisseur Lortais (or Sortais?) and dated 10 March 1913, that reads: 'il m’a semblé reconnaître comme l’ayant propose en 1890 à Mr W.K. Vanderbilt dans l’appartement de M. Perdreau rue Meyerbeer et que je considère comme absolument ancien [I seem to recognize this desk as the one I offered for sale in 1890 to M. K. Vanderbilt in the apartment of M. Perdreau, rue Meyerbeer and I regard it as absolutely ancient]'. It is therefore certain that the desk was on the Paris art market at the end of the 19th Century and likely that it belonged to the galerie Fabre from 1913, some time before it was acquired by Jacques Seligmann. 

THE SELIGMANN DYNASTY 
The founder of the dynasty, Jacques (Jacob) Seligmann, one of the greatest art dealers of all time, was born in Frankfurt and moved to Paris in 1874, where he learnt his profession by being an assistant first to a Paris auctioneer, Paul Chevallier, then to the leading Paris expert in works of art, Charles Mannheim. In 1880 he opened his own shop, Jacques Seligmann & Cie in rue des Mathurins, at this stage – and for quite a long time - specialising in Medieval art. In 1900, going into partnership with his brothers Arnold and Simon (who acted as correspondent accountant), he moved the gallery to the Place Vendôme. 

Prominent clients of the company included Baron Edmond de Rothschild of France, the Stroganoff family of Russia, Sir Philip Sassoon of England, and American collectors Benjamin Altman, William Randolph Hearst, J.P. Morgan, Henry Walters, and Joseph Widener. As American clients increasingly came to dominate the company's sales activities, a New York office at 7 West 36th Street was opened in 1904. Five years later, Jacques purchased the Hôtel de Sagan (the recent Polish embassy in Paris) as a location where Jacques Seligmann & Cie. could stage larger exhibitions and receive its most distinguished clients. 

In 1912 a family quarrel resulted in a lawsuit that split the company. Arnold remained at the Place Vendôme location, reorganized under the name Arnold Seligmann & Cie., while Jacques consolidated his operations and moved the headquarters for Jacques Seligmann & Cie. to the Hôtel de Sagan. Jacques also opened an additional gallery at 17 Place Vendôme to retain a presence near the company's original location, but this branch soon relocated to 9 Rue de la Paix. The New York office, which formerly had operated out of a single room, was upgraded to larger office space and a gallery at 705 Fifth Avenue. 

Amongst all the commercial coups of Jacques Seligmann, the most famous and probably one of the biggest deals ever in the history of the art trade, was the purchase in 1913 of what remained of the Wallace collection in the rue Lafitte house (after the bequest of Manchester Square house and its contents to England) from the heir of Sir John Murray-Scott, Lady Sackville-West, taking all the risks of a lawsuit. Alexandre Pradère

Christie's. TASTE OF THE ROYAL COURT: IMPORTANT FRENCH FURNITURE AND WORKS OF ART FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, 9 July 2015, London, King Street

A Louis XVI ormolu-mounted tulipwood, amaranth, sycamore, holly and mosaic parquetry table àécrire. By Martin Carlin, circa 1775, retailed by the marchand-ébéniste Nicholas-Pierre Severin. Estimate: £400,000-600,000 ($622,400 - $933,600). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The rectangular sliding top with canted breakfront angles, inlaid overall with square trellis parquetry filled with spiral rosettes within a rosette-filled entrelac border, with a three-quarter gallery, rosette and cabochon moulded edge above a sanded panelled border, above a frieze drawer enclosing a scarlet silk velvet-lined hinged compartment flanked by hinged side compartments inlaid with rosette-filled trellis parquetry, the panelled frieze with stiff-leaf borders and centred by tablets within stiff-leaf and sanded borders, the canted angles applied with rosettes, on brass-fluted octagonal tapering legs filled with chandelles, headed by waisted foliate collars and with conforming stiff-leaf sabots, stamped to the underside M.C..., JME, twice N.P. SEVERIN and five times IF, the escutcheons 18th-century but associated, originally fitted with a mechanical action; 28 1/8 in. (71.5 cm.) high; 30 3/8 in. (77 cm.) wide; 17 ¼ in. (44 cm.) deep

Provenance:  Almost certainly bought by Thomas, 2nd Marquess of Bath (1765-1837) for Longleat, Wiltshire and by descent at Longleat; sold Christie's, London, 13 June 2002, lot 310.

Literature: 1869 Inventory, The Marchioness' Sitting Room: ‘A Louis XVI parqueterie writing table with drawer and writing slide ormolu and mounting’. 
1896 Inventory (2nd Marquess' Heirlooms), f 79 r Drawing Room, ‘A 2 ft. 6 in. oblong-shaped inlaid satinwood and kingwood lady's writing table fitted drawer velvet-lined writing flap, pierced gilt-brass gallery, gilt enrichments on reeded legs top inlaid squares with tulip border’. 
H. Granville Fell (ed.), The Connoisseur Year Book, 1951, London, p. 44, fig. XII.
P. Verlet, French Furniture and Interior Decoration of the 18th Century, London, 1967, pp. 189-190, fig. 157.
G. de Bellaigue, The James de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, Fribourg, 1974, no. 75, pp. 374, rev. ed. p. 131.
M. Aldrich, ‘The Marquess and the Decorator’, Country Life, 7 December 1989, p. 167, fig. 9.
S. Morris, ‘Lives of Bath’, The Antique Collector, December 1993/January 1994, p. 31.

The Longleat table àécrire by Carlin

Martin Carlin, maître in 1766. 
Nicolas-Pierre Severin, maître in 1757. 

This jewel-like table, retaining almost all of its original highlighted engraving to the marquetry, is a masterpiece by Martin Carlin. It dates from the mid-1770s/early 1780s when Carlin supplied some of his finest work to the greatest collectors of the day, through the marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier. 

MARTIN CARLIN AND NICOLAS-PIERRE SEVERIN 
Until offered in the Longleat sale in 2002, only the stamp of the less well-known marchand-ébéniste Nicolas-Pierre Severin had been noted on this table. However, the table is of a form perfected by Carlin and detailed examination in 2002 revealed his elusive stamp. Although Carlin's stamp is not obliterated entirely, it is sufficiently indistinct, suggesting that Severin may have disguised it when retailing the table. After receiving his maîtrise in 1757, Severin became a marchand-ébéniste, not only specialising in the production and restoration of furniture but also serving in the role of dealer and specialising in the resale of furniture. It is known Severin sold Boulle furniture and it is very likely he would have purchased works of other furniture-makers to retail as well, including Carlin. 

RELATED TABLES BY CARLIN 
With its breakfront treatment of the panelled frieze, octagonal fluted tapering legs with gadrooned capitals, upspringing chandelles above stiff-leaf and acanthus-cup sabots often with castors, this example belongs to an exceptional group of tables. All executed by Carlin, apparently exclusively for the marchands-merciers, particularly Simon-Philippe Poirier (1720-85) and his successor Dominique Daguerre (d. 1796), this group is embellished with either Sèvres porcelain or marquetry. 
Of these, the earliest and most expensive example, mounted with Sèvres porcelain plaques, was sold by Poirier to madame du Barry in 1772 for 5,500 livres ; it was later in the collection of Queen Maria-Carolina of Naples, and is now in the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon (P. Coutinho, 18th Century French Furniture, Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, 1999, no. 25, pp. 241-253). A second example, with obliterated stamp and Sèvres porcelain plaques dated 1778, was sold anonymously at Sotheby's, New York, 5 November 1998, lot 462 ($2,972,500). In that Poirier, and after 1777 his successor Daguerre, enjoyed a virtual monopoly over the purchase of porcelain plaques produced at the Sèvres manufactory for furniture, it is fair to assume that this was ordered by Daguerre. A third table of this form, decorated in a marquetry of linked ovals enclosing foliate lozenges and stamped by Carlin, is in the Widener Collection at the National Gallery of Art, Washington (Acc. no. C-278). 
Three further tables by Carlin of similar form are known, but with variations in the mounts and surmounted by exceptional specimen marble tops are known. Of these, one decorated with Japanese lacquer was sold from the collection of the late André Meyer, Christie's, New York, 26 October 2001, lot 50 ($1,431,500); another, decorated in Louis XVI 'Boulle' marquetry, was sold from the collection of Francis Guérault, Paris, 31 March 1935, lot 96; and the last, decorated in ebony, was sold from the collection of Jacques Doucet, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 7-8 June, 1912, lot 333, and later in the collection of Jean Rossignol, sold Artcurial, Paris, 13 December 2005, lot 132, (€3,100,959). 

LONGLEAT 
Longleat, Wiltshire has been the seat of the Thynne family since 1541. It is widely considered to be one of the greatest achievements in Elizabethan architecture in England and the first stately home to reveal its full magnificence to the general public, when it opened in 1947. After the original priory was destroyed by a fire in 1567, Sir John Thynne (1515-1580) is thought to have employed the architect Robert Smythson to design the building we recognise today, which took twelve years to complete. Alterations were carried out in 1707 by Christopher Wren under the instruction of 1st Viscount of Weymouth, who added the Best Gallery, Long Gallery, Old Library and Chapel. Sir Jeffry Wyatville, noted for his work on Chatsworth House and Windsor Castle, carried out further modernisations by completing the north façade, constructing a new stable block and remodelling the interior of the house under the direction of Thomas Thynne, the 2nd Marquess of Bath (1765-1837). 
As a result of these various stages of internal alterations, little in the collection remains from the 16th Century, with the exception of several important pictures and around fifty books and manuscripts. Much of the current collection was acquire by the 2nd Viscount Weymouth, the 2nd Marquess of Bath and by his grandson the 4th Marquess of Bath. Although the 2nd Marquess was full of antiquarian enthusiasm for oak and old 'buhl' he did not neglect the contemporary, and following the Peace of Amiens in 1802-1803, he followed the flock of fellow British collectors to Paris to acquire previously unobtainable objects whilst there was a brief respite in hostilities. It certainly appears that in the 1820s Lord Bath had an agent operating on his behalf in Paris, acquiring furniture and objects of the ancien régime. This is almost certainly the route by which he acquired this beautiful mosaic parquetry table àécrire by Martin Carlin. 
It remained at Longleat until Christie’s were entrusted to offer a superb group of paintings, furniture, books and manuscripts, silver and porcelain for sale in order to provide a maintenance fund to secure the fabric of the house, gardens and estate as well as the integrity of the major part of the collections in perpetuity. 

Christie's. TASTE OF THE ROYAL COURT: IMPORTANT FRENCH FURNITURE AND WORKS OF ART FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, 9 July 2015, London, King Street

Le bracelet haute joaillerie en diamants et émeraude taille carrée d'Alexandre Vauthier pour Mellerio dits Meller.

La mono boucle d'oreille en diamants et émeraude taille carrée d'Alexandre Vauthier pour Mellerio dits Meller.

La mono boucle d'oreille Alexandre Vauthier pour Mellerio dits Meller @ Mathieu César Production Iconoclast

La mono boucle d'oreille transformée en collier Alexandre Vauthier pour Mellerio dits Meller @ Mathieu César Production Iconoclast

La mono boucle d'oreille Alexandre Vauthier pour Mellerio dits Meller @ Mathieu César Production Iconoclast

Star Lot: Lucas Cranach the Elder’s The Bocca della Verità, the ‘Mouth of Truth’. Never previously offered on the market, the painting was hotly pursued by three bidders, finally selling for £9.3m / $14.4m / €13m (est. £6-8m) - a new record for the artist at auction and almost double the previous record. This rare German Renaissance masterpiece is among Lucas Cranach the Elder’s most important works. Photo: Sotheby's.

LONDON.- Tonight’s Evening Sale of Old Master & British Paintings at Sotheby’s in London realised £39,310,750/ $60,660,418/ €54,803,067. 

“As the market for Old Master & British paintings continues to evolve we’re seeing an ever more discerning and international collector base vying for a greater diversity of works. Whether it’s a work that transcend genres, such as Cranach’s masterpiece, or a ground-breaking still life created by a female artist over four centuries ago, we saw both new and established buyers from Europe, Russia and Asia competing tonight. Paintings spanning five centuries continue to surprise and excite.” ---Alex Bell, Joint International Head and Co-Chairman of Sotheby’s Old Master Paintings Department 

• Six new artists records established 

• Participants from 30 countries, with buyers from Asia, Russia, the Middle East, and Latin America 

• Freshness of works: almost half the lots (46%) had never before appeared at auction 

• 43% of works sold above their high estimate 

• Pre-sale est. £35.1m-51m / $54.2m – 78.7m / € 49m – 71.1m 

Tonight’s sale brings Sotheby’s Old Master worldwide total to date in 2015 to $187.1m 

This brings the total for sales at Sotheby’s today to £55,994,250 / $86,404,727 / €62,569,196* 

Star Lot: Lucas Cranach the Elder’s The Bocca della Verità, the ‘Mouth of Truth’ 
Never previously offered on the market, the painting was hotly pursued by three bidders, finally selling for £9.3m / $14.4m / €13m (est. £6-8m) - a new record for the artist at auction and almost double the previous record. This rare German Renaissance masterpiece is among Lucas Cranach the Elder’s most important works. 

Lucas Cranach The Elder (1472 – 1553), La Bocca della Verità (The Jaws of Truth). Oil and tempera on red beechwood, 111 x 100 cm; 43 3/4 by 39 3/8 in. Estimate: £6 – 8 million.Sold for £9.3 million  / $14.4 million / €13 million  - a new record for the artist at auction and almost double the previous record. Photo Sotheby's

Property from the Collections of Castle Howard 
Four paintings from the Collections of Castle Howard together realised £9.1m / $14m / €12.7m, over the high estimate (est. £5.6-8.2m). Earlier in the day, five further works made £3.6m in Sotheby’s “Treasures” sale, bringing the total to £12.7m / $19.6m / €17.7m (est. £7.4m-10.8m). 

Ferdinand Bol (Dordrecht 1616 – 1680 Amsterdam ), Portrait of a Boy, said to be the artist's son, aged 8, signed and dated lower left: bol.1652. and inscribed: ætatis 8. sua, oil on canvas, 170 by 150 cm.; 67 by 59 in. Estimate: £2 – 3 million / HK$23 – 34.5 million. Price realised £5,200,000 / $8,000,000 / €7.200,000, a new record for the artist at auction, and nearly four times the previous record of £1,360,000 Photo Sotheby's

Circle Of - Studio Of Hans Holbein The Younger (1725 – 1815), Portrait of King Henry VIII, half-length, wearing a richly embroidered red velvet surcoat, holding a staff. inscribed on the staff: H and dated: 1542, oil with gold and silver on oak panel, 93 by 68 cm.; 36 1/2 by 26 3/4 in. Estimate: £800,000 – 1,200,000. Price Realised £965,000 / $1,500,000 / €1,300,000. Photo Sotheby's

Bernardo Bellotto (1722 – 1780), Venice, A View of The Grand Canal Looking South From The Palazzo Foscari and Palazzo Moro-Lin Towards The Church of Santa Maria Della Carità, With Numerous Gondolas and Barges. Oil on canvas, 59.7 x 89.5 cm. Estimate: £2.5 – 3.5 million / HK$28.8 – 40.3 million. Lot sold for: £2,600,000 / $3,900,000 / €3,600,000. Photo Sotheby's

Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A. (Bristol 1769 - 1830 London), Portrait of William Spencer Cavezndish, 6th Duke of Devonshire (1790-1858), known as ‘The Bachelor Duke’. Estimate £300,000 — 500,000. Lot sold £365,000/ $563,000/ €509,000. Photo Sotheby's

Castle Howard. Photo Sotheby's

Further standout works :

Willem Claesz. Heda (Haarlem circa 1596 – 1680), A still life of a roemer, an overturned roemer, a façon-de-venise wineglass, a silver beaker and a silver and pewter plate, with a sheathed knife, lemons, olives, hazelnuts, walnuts and a paper twist of tobacco, all on a table partly draped with a green cloth, signed and dated lower right on the table-edge: .HEDA. / .1633., oil on oak panel, 59 by 80 cm.; 23 1/4 by 31 1/2 in. Estimate £2,000,000 — 3,000,000. Lot sold  £2.9m / $4,600,000 / €4,100,000 - the second highest price for the artist at auction. Photo Sotheby's

A newly discovered work, 

Domenico Beccafumi (Cortine in Valdibiana Montaperti 1484 - 1551 Siena), The Holy Family, oil on poplar panel, 75.5 by 57.3 cm.; 29 3/4  by 22 5/8  in. Estimate  £500,000 — 700,000. Lot sold £1,085,000 / $1,700,000 / €1,500,000. Photo Sotheby's.

Never before offered on the market, 

Workshop of Gentile Bellini (Venice 1429 (?) - 1507), Portrait of Sultan Mehmed II with a young dignitary, oil on pine panel, 33 by 45.7 cm.; 13 by 18 in. Estimate £300,000 — 500,000. Lot sold £965,000 / $1,500,000 / €1,300,000. Photo Sotheby's.

Six New Auction Records 
In addition to the records for Cranach the Elder and Bol mentioned above, further records were set for: 

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (Venice 1727 - 1804), The Tiepolo family, inscribed on the dog's collar: B.T., oil on canvas, 67 by 96 cm.; 26 3/8  by 37 3/4  in. Estimate £2,500,000 — 3,500,000. Lot sold £2,837,000 / $4,400,000 / €4,000,000, a record for a single work by the artist. Photo Sotheby's.

One of the earliest Italian still lifes by female artist,

Fede Galizia (Milan 1578 – 1630), A Crystal fruit stand with peaches, quinces, and jasmine flowers, signed with monogram lower left: · FG · and dated lower right: 1607, oil on poplar panel, 31.2 by 42.5 cm.; 12 1/4 by 16 3/4 in. Estimate £1,200,000 — 1,800,000. Lot sold for £1,565,000 / $2,400,000 / €2,200,000, a record for a single work by the artist. Photo Sotheby's.

Recently rediscovered work,

Joseph Heintz the Elder (Basel 1564 - 1609 Prague), Diana and Callisto, indistinctly signed in monogram on the base of Diana's throne lower right, oil on copper, 47 by 33 cm.; 18 1/2  by 13 in. Estimate £300,000 — 400,000. Lot sold for £485,000 / $748,000 / €676,000, a record for a single work by the artist. Photo Sotheby's.

John Martin (Hexham, Northumberland 1789 - 1854 Isle of Man), The celestial city and the river of Bliss, signed and dated lower right: J. Martin 1841, oil on canvas, 123.2 by 194.3 cm.; 48 1/2  by 76 1/2  in. Estimate £2,000,000 — 3,000,000. Lot sold for £2,725,000  / $4,000,000 / €3,800,000, a record for a single work by the artist. Photo Sotheby's.

“Treasures” auction results 
This afternoon’s “Treasures” sale totalled £12m/ $18.6/ €16.8m. Highlights included: 

Recently restituted to the heirs of Emma Budge by the Ashmolean Museum, 

A parcel-gilt silver standing salt, unmarked, probably French or Flemish, circa 1560, rectangular, on elongated lion paw supports headed by acanthus below columns and hatched S-scrolls, the sides fitted with basse-taille enamel panels of The Annunciation and the Coronation of the Virgin, enclosed by engraved matted arabesques, interrupting embossed and chased panels of The Nativity and The Resurrection, detachable cover with similar enamelled lozenges of the Four Evangelists,  surmounted by warrior finial standing on a disc of marine ornament with basket of fruit above engraved arabesques, later French and Dutch control marks only; 35cm., 13 3/4in. high, 1479gr., 47oz. 11dwt. all in. Estimate £300,000 — 500,000. Lot sold for £1,025,000 / $1,600,000 / €1,400,000. Photo Sotheby's.

Highlights from the collections of Castle Howard: 

A Monumental Quartz Granite Vase, Roman Egypt, probably Alexandria, circa 1st Century B.C., made for Emperor Nero’s Palace, with pedestal foot, ovoid body with rounded shoulder, flaring mouth, and twin inward-turned handles emerging from ivy leaf-shaped terminals; 68.5 cm high x 54 cm; 2 ft. 2½ in., 1 ft. 7¾ in. Estimate £300,000 — 500,000. Lot sold for £1,025,000 / $1,600,000 / €1,400,000. Photo Sotheby's.

A pair of Italian rosewood Pietre Dure mounted, inlaid ebony cabinets, Roman, circa 1625, on a pair of Regency mahogany and parcel-gilt stands possibly to a design by C H Tatham, first quarter 19th century, of architectural form, the upper parts with pediments surmounted by standing classical figures and putti flanked by female figures with summer and autumn attributes, fitted with drawers, each with a central cupboard enclosing a fitted interior, with an arcaded alcove, inset with panels of lapis lazuli, agate, quartz and various Roman marbles, the pilasters formed of four gilt bronze standing figures and with gilt bronze capitals with rams heads, on plinths supported by four gilt bronze crowned eagles, the mahogany and parcel gilt stands with a moulded top with gadrooned edge above a central frieze with Greek key decoration above two parcel gilt caryatid supports with floral drop swags, the back panel with a central plaque of a female mask centred by gilt wood sun rays, on lion paw feet; 222cm. high, 92cm. wide, 43.5cm. deep; 7ft. 3in., 3ft., 1ft. 5¼in. Estimate £800,000 — 1,200,000. Lot sold for £1,265,000 / $2,000,000 / €1,800,000. Photo Sotheby's.

Jean Le Page (1779-1822), French, Paris, January 1814, The Roi de Rome pistols, each signed: Le Page à Paris / Arq.er de L’Empereur, inscribed: LE PAGE, respectively numbered 1 and 2, inscribed with the serial number: 1703 and dated: Janv. 1814; blued steel, encrusted and inlaid with gold, with walnut and ebony stocks, within a thuya wood veneered case with a wood core, inlaid with mother of pearl and ebony, with silver gilt and steel mounts, and lined with red velvet, with ivory, tortoiseshell, mother of pearl and steel accessories; pistols: 20.6cm., 8 2/16 in. overall including stocks; barrels: 12.6cm., 4 15/16 in.; case: 5.8 by 24.5 by 15.7cm., 2 4/16  by 9 10/16  by 6 3/16 in. Estimate £800,000 — 1,200,000. Lot sold for £965,000 / $1,500,000 / €1,300,000. Photo Sotheby's.

Pre-sale estimate: £9.9-15.8m/ $15.9-25.4m/ €11.6-18.5m.

Including totals for Sotheby’s sales of “Treasures”, Old Master & British Drawings, and Old Master & British Paintings Evening Sale. *Sotheby’s London, Old Master & British Drawings, 8th July 2015 total: £4,653,000/ $7,180,044 / €6,486,741+

Star Lot: Lucas Cranach the Elder’s The Bocca della Verità, the ‘Mouth of Truth’. Never previously offered on the market, the painting was hotly pursued by three bidders, finally selling for £9.3m / $14.4m / €13m (est. £6-8m) - a new record for the artist at auction and almost double the previous record. This rare German Renaissance masterpiece is among Lucas Cranach the Elder’s most important works. Photo: Sotheby's.