Ref.10944
GUERET Frères - Set including an oak clock and barometer

This set consists of a clock and a barometer, is stamped "Gueret Frères à Paris" and dated 1863. Made in carved oak, the barometer and the clock are composed like wall panels carved with cartridges and branches. Very beautiful quality of the sculpture. It was in 1853 that Denis-Désiré Guéret (born February 10, 1828) and his brother Onésime (born March 10, 1830) created a factory of carved furniture under the name "Guéret Frères" . In 1877, it takes the name of "Guéret Jeune et Cie", which allows us to confirm the creation of our set before that date. From 1855, they participated at all Exhibitions and won many medals. The quality of their work is frequently rewarded and adds to their order book. Rich bourgeois but also illustrious personalities such as the Duke of Aumale, Napoleon III or Mr. Bryce, very demanding of this sumptuous furniture, will order them. The latter commissioned them to make all the furniture for his hotel Avenue Gabriel.

Ref.13005
Set of 5,5 m² of terracotta floor tiles in square shape

Antique terracotta floor tiles of 5,5 m² in a square shape, from the 19th century. The sides are 15,5 cm and 16 cm for 1" to 1"3/16 thick.

Ref.15551
Gustave VANAISE, Innocence, 1884

This painting titled Innocence was created by Gustave Vanaise in 1884. Gustave Vanaise (Ghent, 1854-Saint-Gilles, 1902) studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent under Théodore Canneel, and later in Brussels. He notably produced historical paintings, portraits, and intimate scenes; many of his works are preserved at the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent. Vanaise participated regularly in the Paris Salon from 1879 to 1888; in 1884, he exhibited a Young Boy with a Pigeon, which may be this very piece. This work is an allegory of Innocence. Against a backdrop of a luminous yellow cloth stands the figure of a young boy lying on the ground, propped up on his elbows; his youth and nudity, both symbols of innocence, are further emphasized by the dove he holds in his left hand, a symbol of purity. The boy seems about to kiss the bird on the beak. The scene is completed on the right by a low-relief representing a gentle Madonna and Child, set against the background. The artist’s choice of subject and treatment place this work at the boundary between allegory and intimate scene, a genre in which the painter excelled: the presence of the yellow sheet in the background, intended to close the scene, adds to the composition’s closed, intimate character, while the use of symbols and the presence of the Virgin and Child tend to place the work in allegorical painting. In a similar spirit, Vanaise painted The Bacchante, a piece housed at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. It depicts a woman crowned with ivy lying sensually on the ground, while a young boy resembling the one in Innocence – though likely a young satyr here – plays the flute.