Ref.18204
CREIL-MONTEREAU Manufacture - Beautiful antique planter with faux cloisonné flowers decor and base made out of gilded bronze and patinated bronze with elephant heads decor

This beautiful planter was made out of enameled faience by the famous Creil-Montereau Manufacture in the Oise Department of France, ca. 1880. The feet shaped like elephant heads and the base imitating the texture of bamboo with gilt bronze show the influence of Oriental art on French artists during the second half of the 19th century. The planter’s body features a magnificent decoration of peonies and fans on a Turquoise-blue background. The painter imitated the cloisonné enamels technique by painting on gold-colored cracks. The factory’s stamp proves the origin of this object and the floral décor resembles the Flora motif that was one of the Creil manufacture’s most successful creations, exhibited at the World’s Fair of 1855 in Paris.

Ref.11365
Japanese furniture with carved decoration and mother-of-pearl inlay

Inspired by the decors and motifs coming from the Far-East, this piece has a slightly asymmetrical composition in style with the French producers in the beginning of the Meiji Era. While the upper part is perfectly balanced and symmetrical, the lower part is made up of two unsymmetrical elements, a window and a cabinet closed by a very elaborate panel, with a textured background and engraved patterns. The latter, skewed, contributes to the relative deconstruction of this piece and surprises the viewer. The sculpted dragon in low-relief on this panel echoes the chimeras with monstrous heads depicted on the vertical uprights in the upper part. The cabinet is a major decorative element of this piece. Painted with a naturalistic decor in enamel, some motifs are produced in mother of pearl. Indeed in several places this piece is garnished with mother of pearl elements engraved and inlaid in the wood. If the piece itself is a french production, this is not the case of the mother of pearl elements, coming from Chinese provinces and taken from preexisting furniture pieces or decorative panels. If at present it is not possible for us to exactly identify the maker of this piece, we can affirm that it is a French production, greatly inspired by the works of Gabriel Viardot and of the Maison des Bambous of Perret and Vibert.

Ref.11542
Canton porcelain cup with a beautiful gilt bronze mount, 19th century

This beautiful cup was made in the 19th century, it is composed of a Canton porcelain and a beautiful and rich gilt bronze mount. The Canton porcelain was destined to the exportation in the 19th century. They bear a characteristic decoration painted on a white background depicting large medallions or cartouches with palace scenes and natural decor with birds, plants and flowers motifs. The busy backgrounds use very often gold. Thus, we find on our porcelain some cartouches with life scenes inhabited by small characters in traditional outfits on a background composed of stylized black and red flowers. About the mount, it depicts a remarkable carved decor composed mainly of plante friezes on the foot. Two beautiful handles are spreading out in acanthus leaves come to flank both sides.

Ref.14229
A precious Egyptian ship, a rare earthenware piece by Emile GALLÉ

This Egyptian boat in faience was designed by Émile Gallé in the second half of the 19th century. Considered the founding father of Art Nouveau, Émile Gallé took over the workshop founded by his father and gave it a decisive impetus, which he sustained throughout his life with constantly renewed creativity. Ancient Egypt and its culture were one of his favored sources of inspiration, as evidenced by this piece. This artwork depicts a boat with raised prow and stern, inspired by frescoes of ships from Pharaonic Egypt. The body of the vessel rests on a base formed by multiple oars; the hull is adorned with various insects and a turtle on the right. At the center, a lotus flower decorated with numerous gold accents hosts a fanciful insect reminiscent of the “trucsal” design by Gallé, preserved at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. On the other side, the center of the lotus flower is occupied by a scarab, a sacred animal that held a central place in the iconography of Ancient Egypt. The only other known example of this model to date is the Grand Prix version, which required significant expertise and an expensive technique.

Ref.14714
Of roses and bellflowers, the precious porcelain marquetry panel by Julien-Nicolas RIVART

A decorative panel of great finesse, this creation is the work of a unique talent: Julien-Nicolas Rivart. Cabinetmaker and porcelain painter, Rivart developed an original technique in 1849: porcelain marquetry. Our panel is a precious work produced using this innovative and unequaled technique in the history of decorative arts. The process consists of molding the shape in soft porcelain paste, fired once at a very high temperature then leveled with a grinding wheel. Enameled, the piece is fired a second time, then painted and heated to set the colors. The porcelain elements are then surrounded in the panel of a sought-after wood, using marquetry techniques. Our panel presents a rich floral decoration, composed of roses and bellflowers with round leaves, of great delicacy and vibrant colors. Finer scrolls, such as flower stems, can be made of colored resin or wood of various shades. Admired by Napoleon III during the Second Empire, Rivart's works are elegant and subtle. The cabinetmaker designed other pieces of precious furniture, decorated with floral decorations, which the Marc Maison Gallery is pleased to present.

Ref.14795
SÈVRES Manufacture, Winner's cup from the 1878 Universal Exhibition

This porcelain tazza of the “Cybèle” model was created by the Sèvres manufacture in 1878 and decorated in 1919. The Vincennes manufacture, the predecessor of the Sèvres manufacture, was founded in 1740 by workers who defected from Chantilly. The Vincennes manufactory became royal in 1752, shortly before its transfer to Sèvres in 1756. It enjoyed increasing popularity in the second half of the 18th century and throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, continuing to this day. For the Universal Exhibition of 1878, the government commissioned the Manufacture de Sèvres to produce a set of sixty vases and one hundred and twenty bowls to reward exhibitors who had won first prizes. The tazza bears several marks under the base: the inscription “S 78” designates the year of manufacture within the manufactory’s workshops; the cartouche “Décoré à Sèvres / R.F. 1919” tells us the year the tazza was decorated. Thus, our model, left undecorated for forty-one years, could only be delivered in 1919 for reasons that remain unknown. Another Cybèle tazza with an identical decoration is exhibited at the Petit Palais museum in Paris.

Ref.15416
Russian Silversmith, Pair of Silver Candlesticks, circa 1832-1850

This pair of Russian candlesticks was crafted by a Saint Petersburg silversmith between approximately 1832 and 1850. Although the silversmith’s mark, a “PS” in Cyrillic, is not listed, the two assayers responsible for verifying the quality and purity of precious metals, Alexander Mor (active between 1831 and 1854) and Dmitry Tvyersko (active between 1832 and 1850), help date the objects. The date stamp being erased makes it impossible to refine the dating further. The two candlesticks are made of 84 zolotniks silver, meaning 875/1000 fineness. Their decor, in a Nordic style, is stylized. The circular base is adorned with a frieze of pearls topped by four small winged mythical creatures. Between each, geometric interlacing leads to a single foot. This baluster-shaped foot is decorated with battles of aquatic monsters, some resembling stylized crocodiles. The two arms of light support nozzles adorned with openwork interlacing and delicately chiseled ivy leaves. They appear to be gathered by a central peak. These candlesticks are almost identical to those accompanying the Persian clock designed by Adolphe-Victor Geoffroy-Dechaume for the Delafontaine house in 1851-1852. The candlesticks are indeed present in an old photograph of the complete set by Charles Marville: the clock is accompanied by two candlesticks very similar to ours and two cups; the few variations present are not found in all editions of this set. The similarity between the two pairs of candlesticks suggests that the Russian silversmith was strongly inspired by Geoffroy-Dechaume’s work, to the point of reproducing it almost identically, unless the reverse was true; the difficulties posed by dating the objects make it impossible to remove the doubt. However, the fineness of the chiseling of the silver candlesticks remains superior to the ornamentation of some of those produced from the design of the French silversmith.