A ‘Japonisme’ Gilt-Bronze and Cloisonné Enamel Guéridon

Description

A ‘Japonisme’ Gilt-Bronze and Cloisonné Enamel Guéridon. By Christofle & Cie, The design attributed to Émile Reiber and Édouard Lièvre. The enamel attributed to Antoine Tard.

The circular top finely enamelled with an Asiatic bird perched on a flowering cherry branch before a butterfly, on a stylized turquoise ground, within a gadrooned border. On a pierced foliate tripod support headed by a bulb-like boss of pierced clouds and flowering branches. The three swept legs joined by a stylized stretcher headed by a butterfly on a flower.

A shield shaped mark below the stem of the branch signed and dated ‘1885 / CHRISTOFLE & Cie / 157’. the underside of the top with an indistinctly inscribed shield-shaped U.S. Customs label, the underside of one foot stamped ‘931325’ and ‘X’, another foot stamped ‘X’.

Paris, Dated 1885.

Exhibited:
Almost certainly the gueridon shown at:
Christofle stand, Exhibition Universelle, Paris, 1889.
Christofle stand, Union Centraile des Arts Décoratifs, 1891.
Exposition des Arts de la femme, Paris, 1892.

Few works of art more perfectly evoke the orientalist taste of late 19th century France than this splendid guéridon created by the celebrated firm Christofle. With its richly enamelled top and finely cast tripod base, this magnificent table combines influences of the arts of China and Japan with the technological advances mastered by Christofle in the second half of the 19th century. These unique capabilities enabled the firm to create some of the most spectacular works of art of the Belle Époque, including the present, exceptionally rare table.

‘Vases et meubles émaux’ by Christofle (L’Art Modern a l’Exposition, Paris, 1878, p. 317)

AN ARTISTIC COLLABORATION

Like many of the era’s most celebrated pieces of furniture, the present guéridon – inlaid to the top in coloured enamels depicting an Asiatic bird perched on a cherry blossom – is the result of an artistic collaboration. The present table is based closely on a series of designs by Émile Auguste Reiber (1826-1893) a celebrated draughtsman and architect who partnered with Christofle from the mid-19th century and who was the director of the firm’s atelier de création from 1866-1878. There had been from the 1860s a resurgence of interest in the art of Japan and China and the stylistic vocabulary of the Far East influenced Western art, ultimately creating the flowing, naturalistic, forms of Art Nouveau. One of the most active artists in the domain, Reiber was was strongly influenced by Chinese and Japanese works of art, and the present guéridon relates to several studies he completed of works of art from the Far East. In his publication, Le Premier Volume des Albums-Reiber of 1877, a page labelled ‘Porcelaines de Chine’ depicts a Chinese porcelain plate decorated with a bird very similar to that on the present guéridon. Other pages in the same album illustrate close studies of Chinese and Japanese bronze vessels and works of art whose design attributes – notably the bulbous forms of the bronze vases and the stylized representations of cherry blossoms – are reflected in the present lot. It is likely that Édouard Lièvre (1829-1886) also collaborated with Christofle on the design for the present guéridon. Lièvre was a celebrated designer who partnered with many of the period’s preeminent cabinetmakers, bronziers and purveyors ofluxury goods to produce lavish works of art, many of which bear stylistic similarities to the present table. Lièvre’s influence is especially manifest through its stylized silhouette and richly pieced decoration to the stand of the present table, which closely resemble mounts he designed for several cabinets of similar date.

The Christofle stand, Exposition des Arts de la femme, Union Centraile des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 1891.

MAISON CHRISTOFLE & CIE – ORFÈVERIE AND INNOVATION

From its creation in France in the 19th century, the firm Christofle has been celebrated for its elaborate table services and luxurious objets d’art. Charles Christofle (1805-1863), its founder, was initially trained as a jeweller and, in 1842-1843, acquired the rights to exclusive use of galvanoplastie – a technique of applying thin coats of gold and silver to bronze through

electroplating – from silversmiths, Elkington and Ruolz. This technique enabled the firm to create lavish and ambitious sculptures and works of art including the celebrated surtout de table commissioned by Emperor Napoléon III, La France distribuant des couronnes de gloire, presented at the 1878 Paris Exposition universelle and today in the Musee des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (7023.A). The rights to galvanoplastie ultimately proved immensely profitable for the firm, and led to many important commissions. Under the leadership of Charles Christofle’s successors, his son and nephew, Paul Christofle (1838-1907) and Henri Bouilhet (1830-1910), some of the foremost artists of the era were commissioned to create celebrated pieces of furniture for the firm including a series of cabinets known as encoignures

‘japonais’ dated circa 1874-8, of which one example is today in the Musee des Arts-Décoratifs in Paris (27662) and another sold Christie’s, London, 23 February 2006, lot 100 . These splendid armoires, some of most well-known pieces of furniture produced by Christofle, combine numerous influences of Chinese and Japanese works of art and accompany the creation of this splendid guéridon.

The fine enamel top is almost certainly the work of Antoine Tard, émailleur at Christofle from 1860 to 1889. Tard re-invented the technique of cloisonné with reference to Chinese enamels looted from the Summer Palace and displayed from 1863 in the musée chinois at the Palace of Fontainebleau. At the Exposition de l’union centrale in January 1880, he was awarded

‘Un rappel de médaille d’argent à M. Antoine Tard, coopérateur de la maison Christofle. M. Tard est un émailleur cloisonneur, dont on voit de très beaux ouvrages à l’exposition des principales maisons d’orfèvrerie, bijoux, coupes, vases cloisonnés de grande dimension et d’une réussite absolument remarquable’.

 

THE DUC D’AUMALE AND THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS

Only one other example of this guéridon is known, that acquired by the duc d’Aumale between 1874 and 1879 and today in the collections of the Musée Condé, Chantilly (OA 3452). The Chantilly guéridon is nearly identical to the present lot and is almost certainly the one shown at the 1874 Exhibition of the Union Central des Arts Décoratifs in Paris

The guéridon by Christofle dating to 1874 in the Musée de Condé at Chantilly © RMN-Grand Palais (domaine de Chantilly) / Michel Urtado

On Christofle’s acclaimed stand. In the catalogue for the exhibition two guéridons by the firm are described including one whose description – ‘un guéridon à dessus d’émail. 0m 60 de diamètre; Oiseau de Paradis et fleurs de pêcher; fond turquoise’ – almost certainly corresponds to the Chantilly model (p. 12).

It is likely that the Chantilly table was also shown at the Paris Exposition universelle of 1878. In that catalogue, there is a notation of a similar table: ‘une table à trois pieds. Plateau d’émail; Geai dans un pêcher en fleurs, fond bleu’ (p. 16). The model is further illustrated in an engraving published in L’Art Moderne à l’Exposition, where the critics praised the work of the firm, particularly its collaboration with Reiber, whom they deemed ‘le grand

prêtre du japonisme’ and whom they considered a skillful intermediary between the arts of Asia and France with designs of similar importance to François Boucher’s chinoiseries of the previous century: ‘il garde le milieu entre cet art encore mystérieux, dont il faut user avec réserve, et cette traduction courante qui est bien nôtre, comme étaient, au goût français du dernier siècle, les chinoiseries de Boucher ‘ (p. 316). By 1879, the Chantilly guéridon is recorded for the first time in an inventory in the ‘Cabinet d’angle du Grand Appartement’ at the château. However, as the exact date of its definitive entry into the collection remains unclear, it is possible that this same table was that shown at the 1883 Universal Exhibition in Amsterdam, where, in an engraving of the Christofle stand, a nearly identical tripod guéridon is visible. From 1887 forward, the Chantilly guéridon appears regularly in the château’s inventories.

The present table – the only other known version – is dated 1885. As a result, it is almost certain that it was shown at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris, in which Christofle showed the model at the front of their display. Three years later, in the 1891 Exposition des arts de la femme in Paris, this model of guéridon, almost certainly the present lot, appears again in an illustration of the firm’s stand. As its near certain inclusion in these exhibitions would suggest, this exquisite small table is exemplary of the mélange of far Eastern design influences with French technological advances, and is a defining object of the age. Colourful, small and versatile, this guéridon is a bona fide tour de force of the ‘style Japonais et Chinois’ which in turn invigorated a new style, ‘Le Art Nouveau’, as interpreted by one of the era’s preeminent firms, Christofle.