A RARE AND IMPORTANT CHARLES X ORMOLU AND PORCELAIN-MOUNTED AMARANTH, EBONY AND THUYA SECRÉTAIRE À ABATTANT CIRCA 1823, ATTRIBUTED TO ALEXANDRE-LOUIS BELLANGÉ AND LOUIS FRANÇOIS BELLANGÉ, POSSIBLY AFTER DESIGNS BY THE MARCHAND PHILIPPE CLAUDE

A RARE AND IMPORTANT CHARLES X ORMOLU AND PORCELAIN-MOUNTED AMARANTH, EBONY AND THUYA SECRÉTAIRE À ABATTANT CIRCA 1823, ATTRIBUTED TO ALEXANDRE-LOUIS BELLANGÉ AND LOUIS FRANÇOIS BELLANGÉ, POSSIBLY AFTER DESIGNS BY THE MARCHAND PHILIPPE CLAUDE MAËLRONDT

measurements
height 60 1/2 in.; width 34 1/4 in.; depth 16 3/4 in.

alternate measurements
153.5 cm; 87 cm; 42.5 cm

the rectangular rouge griotte marble top above a frieze later mounted with foliate rinceaux, the panelled fall front centered by an oval hard-paste porcelain plaque depicting a still life of fruit and flowers within a beaded and leaf-tip-cast surround suspended from a bow-tied ribbon with crossed laurel leaf branches pendant, set against a trellis-inlaid ground with scroll-painted border enclosing a fitted interior with mirrored open central compartment surrounded by twelve drawers, the angles with draped female terms, the sides similarly mounted and centered by oval porcelain plaques depicting ribbon-tied floral baskets, raised on fluted columnar supports with Corinthian capitals and leaf-tip-cast collars, with mirrored back on a mirror-inset platform raised on tapered ormolu feet with gadrooned border and chased with basket weave, on a breakfront base.

The four porcelain plaques of the fall front bear the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 on the reverse, the side plaques numbered 7 and 8, the ormolu collars of the bases of the legs numbered 1,2,3,4,5,?,7,8,9,10,11; the feet mounts are numbered 6 through 12, the leg sections are numbered 1 through 12, inscribed on the carcass under oval porcelain plaque L'ovale ny les porcelaines n'ont point de marques inscribed 66 DA1 on the back.

PROVENANCE

Jean Joseph Pierre Augustin Lapeyrière, Receveur général des contributions du département de la Seine, sold Paris, April 19, 1825,lot 97.

By repute, Marie-Jean-Pierre Hubert, duc de Cambacérès, who may have purchased the secrétaire at the Lapeyrière sale.

Charles Michel, Paris, 1938, reputedly purchased from the heirs of the duc de Cambacérès.

With W. Ball, New York, in 1938.

Acquired by J. Paul Getty in 1938.

De-accessioned by the J. Paul Getty Museum, sold, Christie's, New York, October 31, 1996, lot 319

Aveline, Paris

LITERATURE

A. Dion-Tenenbaum, 'Alexandre-Louis Bellangé (Attribue à): Secrétaire en cabinet (d'une paire)', Un âge d'or des arts décoratifs 1814-1848 (Galeries nationales du Grand-Palais, Paris, 1991), p. 151, fig. 55C.

Denise Ledoux-Lebard, '"Multiples Bellangé'', Connaissance des arts December 1991, pp.80-89, no. 10, p. 88.

C. Bremer-David, Decorative Arts, An Illustrated Summary Catalogue of the Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1993, p. 44, no. 54.

NOTE

PHILIPPE-CLAUDE MAËLRONDT (1766-1824)

Unlike many of the celebrated marchands merciers who preceded him, Philippe-Claude Maëlrondt did not come from a family tradition of marchands; his family having been more apt to produce lawyers. During the Empire period he was established at Rue de Grammont; then at rue Croix-des-Petits-Champs, and finally at the Boulevard des Capucines before his death in 1824.

One can surmise that the post-revolutionary era afforded Maëlrondt the opportunity to acquire some of the important furniture which was inventoried after his death, this included the celebrated suite of Riesener furniture decorated with Japanese lacquer comprising a commode, a secrétaire and two encoignures (sold from the collection of M. Akram Ojjeh, Christie's, Monaco, December 11, 1999, lot 35), amongst other pieces. Maëlrondt had a stock which was rich in Japanese, Chinese and old Sèvres porcelain for which he designed ormolu mounts of great originality and some daring. It was considered entirely appropriate to cannibalize various pieces of old porcelain and mount them as if they were objets de vertu. In the inventory taken after his death, dated May 31, 1824, one of the appraisers, a landscape painter Alexis-Nicolas Pérignon described: "... plusieurs pièces détachées de cabarets, tels que sucriers, pots à crème, tasses, etc., que M. Maëlrondt a fait monter avec goût, et qui sont devenus vases d'ornemens agréables et précieux." (Geoffrey de Bellaigue, 'Philippe-Claude Maëlrondt, supplier to George IV', The Burlington Magazine, June 2004, pp. 386-395).

Another speciality cited by Pérignon was "divers meubles établis nouvellement avec de très beaux panneaux de vieux laque, garnis de beaux bronzes dorés, d'autres enrichis de médaillons de porcelaine et de montures magnifiques en bronze doré au mat." These were pieces made by Alexandre-Louis Bellangé, as confirmed by entries in the catalogue of the sale of Maëlrondt's inventory . This sale took place over several days, starting on November 15, 1824, and noted, "quelques uns des meubles précieux ont été établis avec autant de soins que d'habilité par M. Alexandre Bellanger [sic], d'après les idées de M. Maëlrondt."

The precise entries in the 1824 inventory also permit us to identify the bronze makers with whom Maëlrondt collaborated: they were Déon, Feuchère and Monvoisin, oncle et neveu.

THE BELLANGÉ FAMILY

The Bellangé family had been in business prior to the Revolution and continued to prosper in the post-revolutionary era. They maintained extremely successful establishments where separately and sometimes together, they carried out Imperial commissions. Louis-François Bellangé (1759-1827) was the younger brother of Pierre-Antoine (1758-1827); Alexandre-Louis Bellangé (1799-1863), the son of Louis-François, worked with his uncle, becoming a cabinet-maker at an early age, claiming the title fabricant d'objets de curiosités, which meant that he made furniture incorporating porcelain plaques, lacquer panels and pietre dure (see Ledoux-Lebard, op.cit. pp. 81, 89).

THE MAËLRONDT/BELLANGÉ SECRÉTAIRES

The November 1824 sale of Maëlrondt's inventory described the following cabinet:

Lot 326: Une très beau meuble secrétaire à deux parties, fait par M. BELANGER, la partie inférieure composé de six colonnes et de quatre pilasters à cannelures en cuivre doré, garnie de deux glaces, la partie supérieure ouvrant à un abattant, garnie de deux glaces, la partie inférieure ouvrant à un abattant garnie de douze tiroirs; cette partie est enrichie de quatre plaques en porcelaine moderne, représentant des paysages et differents sujets et de deux autres plaques en ancient Sèvres à guirlandes de fleurs; elle est aussi garnie de deux cariatides et autres ornaments en bronze doré.

The present secrétaire is closely comparable with a pair, signed Bellange, 41 rue Saint-Martin, in the collection of H.R.H. Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle (illustrated, Hugh Roberts, For The King's Pleasure, The Furnishing and Decoration of George IV's apartments at Windsor Castle, London, 2001, fig. 355, p. 275 (commentary 591). This pair was sold from the collection of George Watson Taylor, Christie's, London, May 28, 1825 (lot 45 or 46). They were sent to Morel and Seddon on September 22, 1827 and were returned to Windsor some five months later on February 28, 1828. The cabinet illustrated by Sir Hugh incorporates the same ormolu caryatids flanking a mirrored drop front; indeed these are the only comparable cabinets fitted with these ormolu caryatids. The stand with its frieze mounts, Corinthian columns and stretcher is identical to the offered cabinet; it is raised on spirally fluted tapered legs.

The pair to the present secrétaire (lot 98 in the Lapeyrière sale) was sold from the Larcade collection in Paris, May 25, 1951, lot 24. Another pair is in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Lyon, one of which is illustrated, A. Dion-Tenenbaum, op.cit. p.150, fig. 55. This pair is fitted on the front with a chinoiserie lacquer panel surrounded by borders of labradorite; a third, illustrated A. Dion-Tenenbaum, ibid. p. 151, fig. 55b, fitted with porcelain plaques and signed "Bellange no 33 rue des Marais-Saint-Martin a Paris" (the stamp of Alexandre-Louis Bellangé) was sold, Christie's, London, March 31, 1977.

The creation of these secrétaires, mounted with porcelain, or with lacquer panels firmly places Maëlrondt in the great tradition of 18th century Parisian marchands merciers such as Poirier, Daguerre, et al. Also like Daguerre, Maëlrondt had a thriving business in England and was an important supplier to George IV. The King was, in fact, an important purchaser in the posthumous sale, and acquired at least three pieces of furniture (a lacquer chest of drawers and two corner cupboards), and a variety of ceramics (de Bellaigue, op.cit. p. 393).

JEAN-JOSEPH PIERRE AUGUSTIN LAPEYRIÈRE (1779-1831)

Lapeyrière was born in Cahors in 1779. His father was Receveur-Général des Contributions de la Seine from 1804 until 1810, when he was succeeded by his son. He was a dedicated collector of Dutch master paintings and by the time of his marriage in 1813, his collection was estimated at 105,360 francs, and his furniture at 70,000 francs. His total assets amounted to the considerable sum of 443,218 francs.

In 1822 the collapse of his personal finances forced him to relinquish his collection, resulting in one of the most important auction sales of the first half of the 19th century on April 19, 1825 (Tableaux precieux et autres objets de curiosité formant le cabinet de M.L., Receveur-Général des Contributions du départment de la Seine). The sale included 191 paintings, as well as sculpture, marble vases and pieces of Sèvres porcelain. His furniture collection included a commode by René Dubois, now in the Wallace Collection (Peter Hughes, The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Furniture, London, 1996, no. 75 (F245) p. 306), and a pietra dura-inlaid commode by Carlin now in the British royal collection.

The sale also included seven pieces of porcelain-mounted furniture (lots 97-101) which apparently came straight out of the Maëlrondt and Bellangé workshops. Only two of the secrétaires were finished, one of which is the offered lot, identified for the first time by Gillian Wilson and Adrian Sassoon, Decorative Arts, A Handbook of the Collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1986, p. 24, no. 51. The other pieces were apparently unfinished, having been ordered by Lapeyrière in 1822 before his financial difficulties forced the work to be stopped; they were given to his creditors.