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Escalier De Cristal
A Fine Louis XVI Style Burr-Amboyna Side Cabinet
£42,000
A Fine Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Burr-Amboyna Side Cabinet, By Escalier de Cristal, Paris. After The Model By Adam Weisweiler. The breakfront...
Dimensions
Height: 120 cm (48 in)Width: 180 cm (71 in)
Depth: 55 cm (22 in)
PrintDescription
A Fine Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Burr-Amboyna Side Cabinet, By Escalier de Cristal, Paris. After The Model By Adam Weisweiler.
The breakfront outline with a gilt-bronze ribbon-twist edge around a moulded brocatelle jaune marble top. The three cupboard doors and side panels of richly patterned burr-amboyna framed by pearl beading. Each interior fitted with an adjustable shelf. The central door flanked by brass fluted columns. The front angles with tapering brass fluted pilasters with spiral cast gilt-bronze capitals. On eight fluted tapering toupie feet.
Stamped to the carcass ‘ESCALIER DE CRISTAL PARIS’.
France, Circa 1880.
Escalier de Cristal is known to have sourced antique works for resale and commissioned contemporary makers to produce objects and furniture. Therefore, the stamp to the present cabinet most likely refers to Escalier de Cristal as a retailer rather than a maker. The use of burr-amboyna, precious marble and high quality cabinetry are indicative of their engaging a first-rate ébéniste to make the present cabinet. Escalier de Cristal’s records show that their go-to furniture maker was Henry Nelson, but it is likely Nelson himself outsourced to other makers. Other names listed include Victor Raulin, Théodore Millet, Frédéric Schmit and Jean Cuenières
The design is based on a celebrated model made by Adam Weisweiler (1744–1820) and delivered by the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre to the Garde Robe of Louis XVI at Versailles shortly before the revolution. At the time, the restrained and elegant design was considered to represent the plain beauty of English furniture and was part of the goût anglais popular in the 1770s and 80s. Multiple examples were made by Weisweiler in burr-yew, thuyawood or mahogany and on occasion embellished with Japanese lacquer door panels.
The commode à vantaux by Adam Weisweiler circa 1785 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/195414 (Image: Public Domain)
The present commode is most similar to one stamped ‘A. Weisweiler’ now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum, New York (Acc. No. 25.161).
Date
Circa 1880
Origin
France
Medium
Amboyna & Gilt-Bronze
Signature
Stamped to the carcass 'ESCALIER DE CRISTAL PARIS'.
L’Escalier de Cristal (1802-1923) was established by Marie Jeanne Rosalie Désarnaud-Charpentier, the daughter of a goldsmith from Châlons-sur-Marne, when she opened her renowned boutique in the Galerie de Valois of the Palais Royal in 1802. There she specialised in objects of great technical and aesthetic innovation, many composed entirely of crystal and gold plated bronze. What the previous century had done incorporating porcelain into objects and furnishings, Mme Désarnaud-Charpentier did with crystal in the nineteenth. Sadly very few of these crystal furnishings survive with us today.
Mme Désarnaud-Charpentier’s fame was secured by the success of her innovative suite of furniture at the 1819 exhibition of the produits de l’industrie , where she was awarded a gold medal. This toilette suite was purchased following the exhibition by one of Escalier de Cristal’s most famous patrons, the Duchess de Berry, Louis XVIII’s niece, and was subsequently installed in her country residence, the Château de Rosny-sur-Seine.
This exhibition, followed on from her success at the Paris 1801 exhibition. The competitive character of the exhibitions led many manufactories and maisons de luxe to create objects of increasing daring and originality; despite this for the judges and visitors the technical innovation of Escalier de Cristal’s creations would have been a revelation.
In 1840, Pierre-Isidore Lahoche acquired L’Escalier de Cristal; joined later by his cousin Emile-Augustin Pannier, the company would become in 1867 Lahoche, Pannier et Cie. At the end of 1872, Pierre-Isidore Lahoche retired from business leaving his son-in-law in charge of the company. The boutique moved to the centre of Paris, at the corner of rues Auber and Scribe, a few steps away from Opera Garnier.
By 1885 the company was known simply as Pannier et cie, managed by Georges and Henri Pannier, sons of Emile. Henri Pannier was the art director whereas Georges took care of the finances. In the last decades of the 19th century the company widened its repertoire to include exceptional furniture in Louis XV and Louis XVI revival styles and ground breaking works by designer-ornamentists such as Edouard Lièvre. In the tradition of the 17th and 18th century marchand-merciers, they would collaborate with the finest bronziers, ebenistes, lacquers and painters of the day creating objects of unparalleled luxury and embracing sophisticated modernist styles such as extreme oriental and japonisant.
The company won multiple awards and medals at national and international exhibitions, including bronze medals at the Universal Exhibitions in London in 1862, and in Paris in 1867 and 1878. They were awarded a gold medal at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle.
The firm finally closed in 1923.
The large number of objects that remain today in the possession of European Royal households, that were made by Escalier de Cristal, attests to the success and reputation the company achieved. Pieces also remain in the collections of the Louvre and Musée D’Orsay.
Bibliography:
De Commines, Laurent & Gizard, Eric. Un √Çge D’or Des Arts Décoratifs 1814-1848, Réunion des Musées Nationaux, (Paris), 1991.
A. & D. Masseau, Escalier de Cristal Le Luxe à Paris, 1809-1923, Éditions Monelle Hayot (Paris) 2021., pp. 238-314.
