Ref.10916
SAINT-CLEMENT manufactory - Plate set with orchids

Set of plates in earthenware of Saint Clément, including 19 large plates (diameter 9'' 7/16) and 8 small sized plates (diameter 8'' 11/16). The decorations present different varieties of orchids.

Ref.11229
Emmanuel FREMIET (1824-1910) et Emile MÜLLER ET CIE The Eagle and The Lizard, ridge tiles after the sculpture of the Château of Pierrefonds

Glazed stoneware H : 60 cm / 23” 5/8 ; W : 76 cm / 29” 15/16 ; D. : 30 cm / 30” 13/16. Circa 1900 A major sculptor of the nineteenth century, Emmanuel Frémiet imagined "The Eagle" around 1878, a chimera with an armor and its feet protected by spurs, for the renovation of the Chateau of Pierrefonds under the direction of Viollet-le-Duc. The Grande Tuilerie of Ivry creates from this stone sculpture a work in glazed sandstone circa 1900, of which we have here a copy. These enameled stoneware chimeras are museum pieces: the Metropolitan Museum of New York holds one of the only two known copies of the Lizard made by the Grande Tuilerie, while a copy of the ceramic Eagle is preserved at the Chateau of Pierrefonds. It is indeed one of the first important works of Emmanuel Frémiet (1824-1910), who started as a lithographer at the Museum of Natural History in Paris in the 1840s. His observation of animals made him an excellent sculptor who, with a taste for the Troubadour fantasies, gave birth to this chimera. Emmanuel Frémiet is one of the most important artists of the 19th century. Pierrefonds truly launched his career, both as an animal sculptor and for his future great equestrian statues. In fact, he is the author of the golden statue of Joann of Arc installed on Place des Pyramides in Paris (1874), and of the statue of St. Michael of the Mont Saint-Michel Abbey (1897). Widely rewarded, he was a Legion of Honor Officer in 1887, a member of the Institute and professor of animal drawing at the Museum in 1892, and he was consecrated by a Grand Prix at the Universal Exhibition of 1900. The Emperor noticed his talent during the construction of the Salle des Manèges at the Louvre in 1858, and recommended him to Viollet-le-Duc for the restoration of the Chateau of Pierrefonds. For this work, fantasy is allowed and artists have the freedom to let their sensibilities run free. Frémiet was commissioned to make the great equestrian statue of Louis of Orleans, completed in 1869, and also made four chimeric animal statuettes for the main staircase. He designed them around 1878 and they were carved in stone in the 1880s. Thus, the Eagle is part of a set of four chimeras, with the Ox, the Marabou and the Lizard, which stand behind the great statue of Louis of Orleans. The whole decorates the castle courtyard, where the guests of the imperial couple arrived for the Séries de Compiègne. The four chimeras of the staircase in Pierrefonds immediately marked the public and became works in their own right. These four figures are engraved by A. Raguenet for his journal Materials and documents of architecture, sculpture, and all the industrial arts in 1895, then in 1905, they are illustrated in The monsters in art, by Edmond Valton. Faced with the success of these four chimeras, Emmanuel Frémiet collaborates with Louis Müller to adapt them to ceramics, a collaboration from which comes our ridge tile. Indeed, at the end of the 19th century, the best artists appealed to the Émile Müller et Cie factory, led by the son of the founder, Louis Müller, since 1889. Emile Müller (1823-1889), a trained architect, founded "La Grande Tuilerie" in Ivry in 1854, a decorative ceramic factory for architecture, which has enjoyed increasing success over the years. The Grande Tuilerie was crowned with a Grand Prix in 1889. It was widely renowned and extended its activities to include reproductions of masterpieces such as Eugène Grasset, Henri de Toulouse- Lautrec, and the sculptors Vibert, Charpentier, Falguière, Guillot, and Emmanuel Frémiet. In fact, the Grande Tuilerie develops a Catalog for the execution in sandstone of a selection of works by the masters of contemporary statuary, and in 1896 proposes the Ox and the Lizard by Frémiet. In 1904, the catalog proposes the four animals. It was in these same years that the factory produced its most famous masterpieces: the domes’ roofing of the Grand and Petit Palais, the Bakers by Alexandre Charpentier in 1900, and the "Maison des Chardons" in 1903.

Ref.12433
Napoléon III firescreen in gilt bronze with a dancer

This firescreen was made of gilt bronze in the second half of the 19th century. It depicts an eclectic decoration, typical of the taste under the Second Empire mixing the decorative motifs of the Louis XV and Louis XVI styles. Indeed, the first style is illustrated by the presence of many acanthus leaves scrolls, while the laurel crowns and the covered vases are characteristic of the second one. The center of our firescreen also receives a medallion in which a beautiful and young dancer is represented dresses with an antique drapery.

Ref.4704
Louis XV period mantel in Alep Breccia with a winged shell

This very beautiful mantel is a work from the South of France, dating from the late 18th century. It was made of Alep Breccia marble and shows a rare sculpted decoration on its serpentine entablature. It is composed on its center with a large Rococo winged shell underlined by an oblong moulding. The corners are decorated with large curved acanthus leaves. The entablature rests on jambs slightly swollen on their upper part and with a paneled decoration.

Ref.13163
VAL D’OSNE FOUNDRY, Cast iron statues of the goddess Ceres and of the nymph Pomona, after Mathurin MOREAU

These two cast iron statues depicting the Roman goddess Ceres and the nymph Pomona are the works of the sculptor Mathurin Moreau (1822-1912) for the Val d’Osne foundry. This artistic foundry was founded in 1835 by Jean Pierre Victor André, inventor of the ornamental cast irons. The foundry, with its workshops settled in the Val d’Osne (in the French department of the Haute-Marne), was first created in order to produce urban furniture and decorative cast irons, but quickly became France’s greatest artistic foundry under the name of « Fonderie d’art du Val d’Osne ». Hippolyte André (1826-1891) was appointed at the firm’s head at the death of his uncle. The growing firm absorbed then several competitive establishments, like Barbezat or Ducel. Mathurin Moreau comes from a family of sculptors : his father Jean-Baptiste, as well as his two brothers, Hippolyte and Auguste, were sculptors too. He was 21 years old when he received the second Prix de Rome, in 1842. He began displaying his work in the Salon in 1848, and was immediately noticed. During the 1855 World’s Fair he displayed with success a great fountain, which seduced the city of Bordeaux, and brought him to the top of the decorative arts stage. He won numerous awards during his career, in particular at the 1859, 1861 and 1863 Salons, and to the 1867, 1878 and 1889 World’s Fairs. Starting 1849 and for three decades, he collaborated with the Val d’Osne foundry, for which he made remarkable models for fountains, candelabras, or even garden statues like ours. His models decorate the public space of France but also Geneva, Liverpool or even Buenos Aires and Peruvian cities. We learn that our statues, presented on the foundry’s catalog, depict Ceres, goddess for harvests, agriculture and fertility, and Pomona, nymph and divinity of fruits. Both are wearing an antique tunic, falling down their bodies, underlining their breasts, with the drapery following their leg’s movements. According to the mythology, Ceres, the one holding a wheat sheaf, is supposed to be the origin for the four seasons, putting the ground’s fertility on hold during the four months when her daughter Proserpina is meant to be in the underworld next to her husband Pluto. Meanwhile, Pomona is the divinity of fruits : following the mythology, she did not like wilderness but preferred instead a well-nurtured garden. The artist represented her offering grapes with her right hand, and holding her tunic’s drapery, filled with fruits, with her other hand. Creating these two cast iron statues, the artist celebrates generosity and nature’s beauty following the neoclassical ideals of his times.

Ref.13985
18th-century stone basin

Ref.15234
BACCARA - Pair of Japanese style vases in red crystal

Founded under Louis XV, the French crystal factory Baccarat demonstrated its excellence at Universal Exhibitions throughout the 19th century. These ruby-tinted blown crystal roller vases feature an acid-etched decoration and golden. Japanese-style, their decor presents two pairs of finches in different positions. They move in a landscape of roses and other flowers on a carpet of flowering grass. The influence of Japanese prints is perceptible in the theme, as well as in the way of constructing the space and representing the landscape and animals. The Baccarat crystal factory produced numerous ruby-colored vases with decorations very similar to this one, in the 1880s. A set of three roller vases with a similar shape and decoration notably passed to Drouot; their gilded bronze frame bears the stamp of the crystal factory.

Ref.15505
Louis XVI style trumeau richly decorated with a wreath of flowers

Ref.15506
Small Louis XVI-style gilded trumeau