From Deco Cars to Deco Furniture

Streamlining influenced automobile design in the Deco age, and changed the appearance from the old rectangular transporters into sleek vehicles with sweeping lines, symmetry and V-shapes. It didn’t matter that the decorative elements could hardly influence speed and effic­iency; it was enough that these elements suggested speed and effic­iency. Muscular and forceful elements, like high prow hoods, art-deco speed lines for chrome grilles and parallel bar trims were the rage in Deco cars!

Two examples can show us how the exterior and interior of a deco classic appeared Examine the Cadillac Sedanette from the outside, then have a look at the interior. And see the walnut dashboard of the 1938 Bentley. 

desk, Louro Preto and chestnut burl veneer, Brights of Nettlebed. Date?

I liked the car reviewer who acknowledged that more than exciting dials and switches alone, the dashboard was (and is?) also an important statement of personal style. The best dashboards were works of art where engineering met styling, and fact balanced fantasy. In his 1934 MG PA Midget, for example, the Art Deco dashboard made a pronounced play of MG's famous octagon badge: dials and switches were encased in chunky chromed octagons. And the speedo and rev counter were combined in one delicious looking dial. Can we say boys with their toys?

But not just cars. Soon designers were including speed lines and V shapes in other, totally unrelated objects eg clock faces. Monumental architecture and small art objects alike adopted the use of stepped forms, geometric shapes, chevrons, ziggurats and other motifs of the Art Deco era.

Cadillac Sedanette exterior and dashboard, owned by Cars for Films

Brights of Nettlebed has photographed an amazing Louro Preto and chestnut burl veneered pedestal desk, shaped just like a classic car. Coming from Central and South America, especially southern Brasil and Venezuala, Louro Preto veneer was used for interior design, furniture pieces and boat building.

The angled sides encloses a vintage leather inlaid hood with a car clock inset into the dashboard and recesses, above a steel detailed drawer, push action draw­ers with engine turned fronts. Each pedestal has two drawers with steel handles, while the side and front have grille bases. I know the width (212 cm wide) but I wish I knew who the designer was and in which year this amazing desk was made.

If this pedestal desk, by itself, doesn’t inspire memories of the vintage racing era, classical cars and stylish timber dashboards, the collector could simply add a painting of a 1930s car on the nearest wall.

Dashboard of a 1938 Bentley

Napoleon gave it to Josephine! (The art object, I mean)

Princely taste, indeed. The Empress Clock, a spectacular ormolu mounted automaton singing bird vase clock, was made for the Empress Josephine in 1805.

The case of this clock is attributed to Claude Galle, (1759-1815), a bronzier and gilder working in Paris. No other bronzier in Paris obtained as many royal commissions as Galle. After the French Revolution, Galle continued to produce numerous pieces for Napoleon Bonaparte, including an order for the Chateau of Saint-Cloud. In the early C19th, Galle participated in the refurnishing of ALL the royal palaces, including Napoleon's residences in Italy.

By this time, the Galle firm had become one of the largest in Paris, with 400 workers. Their craftsmen made this sort of case for clocks of course, but also for ewers and vases.

The Empress clock, made in Paris in 1805, 82 cm high

The clock & automaton maker was Jean Francois DeBelle. DeBelle was a pupil of the great horologist Robert Robin and became a master in 1781. He seems to have been an unorthodox artisan, working outside the guilds, but popular for his fine work. He was court clock-maker to Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette until their 1793 execution. DeBelle apparently went into hiding during the revolution, but his life improved with the establishment of the First Republic.

Sotheby’s believes that DeBelle’s talents were bought to the notice of the Emperor Napoleon when he supplied two vase clocks to his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples and Spain. Similar to Josephine’s clock except for the singing bird, the other two vase clocks are now in Madrid National Museum.

In any case, Napoleon and Josephine were married in 1796 and were crowned Emperor and Empress of France in 1804. In 1805 Napoleon asked DeBelle to make an automaton clock as a gift to the Empress and one year later the clock was delivered. She must have loved it since the clock remained with her at Malmaison, following her divorce from the Emperor. After her death in 1814, her property went to the children of her first marriage, Eugene and Hortense. And DeBelle supplied the Emperor Napoleon with many art objects for the Grand Trianon, where Napoleon later lived there with his next wife Marie Louise of Austria.

Clearly both artisans received commissions from European nobility.

The Empress Clock was tall (82cm) and made of a rich range of materials - the Sotheby’s catalogue mentions ormolu on the bronze, painted brass, steel, glass and stained peacock feathers. The tapered body was painted to resemble veined marble, the upper section and neck applied with finely chased mounts representing Arts and Science. The enamel dial within a frieze of rams and cornucopias was flanked by crisply cast eagles attacking serpents, which formed part of the scroll handles.

When the clock struck, an automaton bird appeared, flapped its wings and opened its beak - its breast feathers trembling - as it selected one of three tunes played by pipe organ. DeBelle ingeniously concealed the movement that operates both upper and lower automata sections of the clock.

No wonder the clock sold for £825,000 (USA $1.3 million) in July 2011.

**

Now a lovely comparison, smaller but from the same era.

DeBelle mantel clock, made in Paris c1806, 37 cm high

Richard Redding Antiques in Zurich had a very fine Empire gilt and brown patinated mantle clock of eight day duration, signed on the white enamel dial Lefevre suc De Belle à Paris. The dial had Roman numerals and outer Arabic numerals for the days of the month and a fine pair of gilt brass hands for the hours and minutes. The blued steel pointer was used for the calendar.

The movement with anchor escapement, silk thread suspension, striking on the hour and half-hour with an outside count wheel. The architectural case had a stepped rectangular top with overlapping stiff leaf cornice and the dial was surmounted by an egg-and-dart moulded arch terminating in Apollo masks and stylised branch and dragon spandrels. The glazed panel was used for viewing the pendulum bob flanked by husk-festooned torchères, the sides with arched glazed panels surmounted by triangular pediment mounts and flanked below by amphora. The whole object was placed on a stepped base, centred by an applied mount with vase, dragons and flanking rosettes, on bun feet.

Commodious Furniture

In times when flushing toilets were rare and indoor plumbing even rarer, people used a close stool instead. This was an enclos­ed cab­in­et at chair-height with a hole in the top; then the entire unit was covered on top by a hinged outer lid. A ceramic chamber pot sat inside the close stool.

17th century close stool, oak

The close stool gave way to the night table or night commode, Vict­orian terms that readers will be more familiar with. The night commode, however, had two advantages over the close stool. Firstly it was a closed cabinet and chamberpot that sat next to the bed. This would have been particularly important in winter. Second­ly its marble or timber top served as a washstand for a basin and water pitcher. By Victorian times, hygeine was seen to be more important, as well as more pleasant.

Presumably families with access to good quality furniture in the rest of their home would have selected top quality close stools and commodes.

Georgian close stool, mahogany with leather book lid.

I have seen many close stools and night commodes over the years, but I have never seen one like a night stool that was on offer at Sotheby’s London in April 2009 (Classic English Furniture: The Norman Adams Legacy 1923-2009). The mahogany stool and hinged lid had a large, shaped apron on all sides to hide the enclosed pot, and stood on cabriole legs with pad feet. But the lid wasn’t timber or tapestry as we'd normally expect. Instead it had been crafted in the form of a large leather book with marbled pages.

Country Life, reviewing the piece 6/5/2009, said it "was perhaps intended for a bibliophile too immersed in his studies to leave the library for relief". I thought it was the most wonderful literary reference I've seen in furniture.

Victorian night table, walnut and marble top

A Connoisseur’s Corner discovered an 18th century chair that was originally the toilet of a cashed-up Philadelphia gent. The deep side panels along the seat frame concealed the chamber pot that would have been inserted in the well of the wood platform. The upholstered seat was placed on top, partially to hide the chamber pot and partially, I would imagine, to look attractive. In the inter-war period a dealer converted the object into a proper drawing room chair by reducing the length of the apron around the seat frame and by eliminating the platform into which the chamber pot would have been inserted.

Gold art objects in revolutionary France - Vachette

Before the French Revolution (1789–99), each gold or silver object was stamped with a] a maker’s mark, b] a charge mark, to say the piece had been declared to the tax authorities and c] a discharge mark, to say that the tax had been paid. The amount of tax charged was of course a function of the weight of the piece. A fourth mark, the warranty, certified the silver content in the object. The warranty took the form of a letter that changed each year, enabling the buyer to determine the precise year of manufacture.

Vachette, gold box, 1789, 8 x 5 cm, Bonhams

The goldsmith guilds, makers of luxury goods, had been suppressed during the French Revolution. So after peace and normality returned to French life, gold and silver makers had to regain consumer confidence. The new warranty mark was an administrative mark replacing the charge and discharge marks used in pre-Revolutionary times. The Gorgon head mark in a circular reserve was a warranty mark, used to assure buyers that the maker had paid tax on the object and to guarantee that there had been no collusion between the assayer and the tax collector. The Michelangelo head facing right on one side of an object was the silver standard or assay mark for Paris, used until 1838 for 950 silver.

Let me examine one of the last of the pre-revolutionary pieces (dated Paris 1789), marked before the First French Republic was declared in 1792. A gold and moss agate snuff box from Bonhams was made in rectangular form with canted corners. The cover was mounted with a central circular forest agate panel within a fluted and guilloche frame, flanked by panels of engine-turning within a border. The sides had similar engine-turned panels separated by pilasters, and the base was decorated with bright-chased and matted acanthus and feather scrolls. This exquisite object was tiny.

The 1789 snuff box was made by Adrien-Jean-Maximilien Vachette (1753-1839) with Vachette's pre-revolutionary maker's mark, the charge and discharge marks of the Paris warden, and a Paris mark. Fortunately we know quite a lot about Monsieur Vachette from Sotheby’s. He was born in 1746, the 15th child of his tax collector father. The young man completed 8 years apprenticeship and was registered as a master in Paris in 1779. His pre-revolutionary style emphasised classical clean lines and pilasters/flat columns.

Vachette, tortoise-shell box, post 1819, 8 x 6 cm. Photo credit V & A.

Vachette was one of the lucky artists. He disappeared during the years of The Terror and successfully resumed his profession in 1805, entering into various lucrative partnerships until his death in Paris in 1839. The V & A has an exquisite tortoise-shell box, mounted in gold and set with a miniature portrait of Monsieur de Pontchartreux. The maker's mark for AJM Vachette was signed on the rim as you would expect, but this time there were post-revolutionary Paris marks for 1819-38. Vachette’s tortoise-shell box was also small.

It is clear from the auction houses and museums that Vachette was a prolific artist, concentrating on what he knew best – small gold boxes. So that begs an important question. Did Vachette do his own decorative art works on the lids of his boxes? Assuming he did not, which other artists were responsible for the circular agate panel on the snuff box? and the painted portrait miniature of Monsieur de Pontchartreux?

Vachette, gold snuff box, 1805-9. Photo credit V & A

The Victoria and Albert does have a snuff box where the details of the painting are known. The chased and engraved gold work has glazed miniatures top and bottom, and lapis lazuli on the side panels. But note that the minatures had been painted in 1752 and 1753 by Antoine de Marcenay de Ghuy (1724-1811), a French painter and engraver. The miniature on the cover depicts the Bay of Naples while the view on the base shows Tivoli, near Rome.

Where had these two miniature landscape paintings been, between 1752 and 1809?

**

One painter decorator was very well known. Jean-Baptiste Isabey 1767–1855 went to Paris as a young man, to became a pupil of the incomparible Jacques-Louis David. Later patronised by Josephine and Napoleon, Isabey arranged their royal coronation ceremonies and prepared drawings for the publication intended as the official record of the day's events.

Napoleon snuffbox, 1812,
gold by Moulinié, Bautte et Moynier and painted by Jean-Baptiste Isabey
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Examine a 1812 gold snuff box that had Napoleon Bonaparte stamped all over it. I love the portrait done by Jean-Baptiste Isabey. Here Isabey painted Napoleon in the coronation regalia he wore when he crowned himself Emperor Napoleon I. Surrounded with a border of alternating Napoleonic stars and bees, the emperor was sporting a gold diadem and royal cross. The snuff box itself, lushly composed of three different tones of gold, was not crafted by a French firm. Instead the job was sent to the Swiss firm: Moulinié, Bautte et Moynier.

Jacques-Félix Viennot also made French snuff boxes out of gold in the Empire era. A rectangular box with canted corners was particularly interesting because the cover and base had panels of an engine-turned cube pattern. For extra contrast, the borders were engraved with foliage on a matted ground. In the central oval is a fine portrait of Napoleon in coronation robes, painted by Isabey. The snuff box (made from 1804 on) is normally in Fondation Napoleon in Paris. Just for winter 2012 this small gold box will be located at the National Gallery of Victoria for the Napoleon: Revolution to Empire exhibition. 

Meissen: the town and its porcelain

Being a passionate collector and admirer of early European porcelain, I had been very interested to read how Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and Chinese porcelain fanatic, was desperate to crack the secret that the Chinese had held for so long. Augustus had been spending too big a portion of his annual royal budget on importing porcelain, and he believed it should have been possible to create porcelain at home. Equally exquisite, but far cheaper!

Each Elector of Saxony lived in Albrechtsberg castle, built in the C15th as a late Gothic royal residence. In 1705 Augustus the Very Strong set up a secret laboratory within his castle walls. He imprisoned the alchemist Johann Friedrich Boettger (1682-1719) and others in his castle and probably would have kept them there for life, in order to find the magical formula.

Fortunately for Boettger, he discovered the formula. The first successful experiment took place in 1708 and within two years, the good citizens of Saxony were delighted to see European-created porcelain. Augustus the Strong immediately turned part of his castle into a porcelain factory, with workshops for hundreds of designers and craftsmen. Security against prying (royal) eyes from Vienna and other cities was paramount.

Albrechtsburg Castle and the Meissen Cathedral above the River Elbe

By the end of the C19th, the factory moved out of the Albrechtsburg which was by then looking a bit tatty. So the residential palace was renovated and the space that had been utilised as a porcelain factory was opened as a historical museum to the glories of the Saxon past. City pride expanded and soon after, Meissen’s cathedral was crowned with the skeletal spires in the late Gothic style that now lend such drama to this city. By the 1880s, Meissen was offering a splendid package-deal for tourists.

Albrechtsburg Castle Museum, historical murals

Apparently the exhibition put on at the Albrechtsburg for the 300th anniversary of Meissen porcelain in 2010 was particularly impressive. The exhibition hall presented a fine analysis on three centuries of porcelain manufactured by hand, including the porcelain made for Catherine the Great of Russia and the famous 3.5 m high centrepiece created for the dining table of King Augustus III.

When Joe and I were in Dresden, we found a brilliant 4-hour tour of the medieval city on the banks of the River Elbe. Situated only 25km northeast of Dresden, it is clear that the historic town of Meissen still owes its international reputation to its famous porcelain factory Staatliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Meissen GmbH. Its 1720 logo of two crossed swords, on the bottom of each porcelain object, is one of the oldest trademarks in existence and is still a guarantee of quality across the world.

The crossed swords logo was introduced in 1720 to protect the company’s exclusivity.

We were taken on a walk through the winding and quite steep medieval streets, and very much enjoyed Albrechtsburg castle and adjacent cathedral. It is not a coincidence that Meissen's historical district is located close to the market at the foot of the castle hill.

But the highlight of the excursion for me was going through the showrooms of the Meissen factory. The tour began with a short film on the history of the factory, the raw materials used and the processes adopted. In the following four rooms, the visitors saw how Meissen porcelain was made by hand. Relief-moulded cups were thrown, and parts of figures cast, at the workbenches of a thrower and modeller. The fettler then joined the parts of a figure together. Underglaze painting was demonstrated and the tour concluded with a display of overglaze painting. Floral decorations and painting based on oriental motifs were used to illustrate this multifaceted technique with its extensive nuances of colour.

On leaving Meissen, the tour offered a chance to stop for photos at the magnificent Moritzburg Castle. Nestled among woods and lakes, the former hunting grounds of Augustus the Strong were seen en route back to Dresden. But I don’t remember Moritzburg.

A painted Meissen porcelain circular bowl and cover, mid-C18th, auctioned by Toovey’s.

A useful porcelain reference can be found in Country Life Travel (Winter 2011-2). For fine photos of Meissen's main architecture, see Bird of Prey's nest.

Fabergé paper knives - elegant, expensive art objects

The House of Fabergé was founded in 1842 by Gustav Fabergé in a basement shop in St Petersburg. The information about the first Fabergé generation is scatty, but there is far more to say about the second generation. Gustav's son, Peter Carl Fabergé took over and expanded the family firm until it was an empire employing 700 workers. No one made art objects as stunningly beautiful and rich as the House of Fabergé in the later 19th century.

When Carl Fabergé took over the running of the business in 1882, its output increased so rapidly that he (and his brother Agathon) could not fulfil all the commissions themselves. They therefore decided to establish independent workshops. A Fabergé workmaster was a craftsman who owned his own workshop and created art objects for Fabergé. There were two elements of quality control. Firstly the workmasters were committed to work exclusively for the House of Fabergé. Secondly Fabergé would accept not art objects until those objects had been approved by Carl or by his personal representative.

Spaniel head, Kollin, 1896

Let me mention just three of these workmasters. Gabriel Niukkanen was a Finnish craftsman who had his own independent workshop in St Petersburg during the 1870s and didn’t become a workmaster for Fabergé until 1885. He specialised in small silver and gold art objects.

Erik August Kollin (1836-1901) was born in Finland, where he qualified before travelling across the border into Russia in 1868. By 1870 he had opened his own workshop in St Petersburg. Kollin joined the Peter Carl Fabergé empire and by 1872 was put in charge of all Fabergé workshops, so he must have been hugely talented. He was Fabergé's first chief jeweller, mostly using gold and silver. The initials EK will be found on each artefact, alongside the Fabergé hallmark. Kollin’s most famous work include art objects made for the German Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck, which were passed on to her daughter Queen Mary and her British son-in-law, King George V.

Anders Nevalainen was a third goldworker born and apprenticed in Finland in 1858. Nevalainen had moved to St Petersburg by 1874 and was a master goldsmith in 1885. A master first working in the jewellery workshop of August Holmström, Nevalainen soon became as head of workshop under exclusive contract with Fabergé. Look for his initials A.N, used with the Fabergé mark.

Sword shaped, Niukkanen, 1886

Fellows Auction House had two special Fabergé paper knives. Examine a parcel-gilt, enamel and nephrite paper knife, 21.5cm long. The handle terminal was modelled as a spaniel's head with red gem eyes, above a short cylindrical column in lime green guilloché enamel. It led to a foliate mounted nephrite jade blade, post 1896 mark for Erik August Kollin of St Petersburg. The estimate for this lot was £5,000-£8,000.

Nephrite jade is a calcium-magnesium silicate that can be translucent or opaque, and can appear as green, grey or off white, depending on the minerals in the material. Diamond is the hardest mineral i.e the most resistent to scratching, but nephrite is the toughest i.e the least brittle.

Another Fabergé paper knife from Fellows was 23cm long. The slightly later date and large size did not detract from the parcel-gilt, enamel and nephrite material which had the handle terminal modelled as a swan's head with red gem eyes. It ended a cylindrical column in royal blue guilloché enamel, mounted with cabochon garnets and classical motif giltwork. And it led to a scrolling foliate mounted nephrite jade blade. The workmaster's mark was for Henrik Wigström and the estimate for this lot was £8,000-£12,000 (USA$12,600-19,000).

Swan’s head, Wigstrom, c1900

The most beautiful paper knife, dated after 1886, was made from nephrite, gold, rose diamonds and cabochon sapphires. This paper knife was produced in the workshop of the workmaster Gabriel Niukkanen, St Petersburg and was 15 cm long. But note the more complex shape. The translucent nephrite blade was created in the form of a sword; the openwork gold pommel was set with rose-cut diamonds and cabochon rubies, with a gold suspension loop. Auctioned by Christie’s in New York, the estimate was USA$10,000-15,000.

A different nephrite jade paper knife had silver decoration, with a garnet and diamond in the snake head. The Fabergé mark showed a date after 1896 and before 1910, but there was no maker’s mark. Fabergé made a lot of decorative art objects as accessories for desks and the estimate here was USA $10,000-20,000.

Snake’s head, no maker’s mark, 1896-1910

Christie’s had a gold-mounted nephrite paper knife by Fabergé, with the workmaster's mark of Michael Perchin, St Petersburg 1896-1903. The elongated flattened nephrite blade with a striated cage work handle with leaf-chased border. Altogether it was 14.9 cm long. As Kollin was replaced by Michael Perchin in 1886, Kollin’s hallmark should be limited to the era 1872-86. Perchin’s hallmark would be limited to any time after 1886.

Cage work handle, Perchin, 1896-1903

Examine the longest (17 cm long) and most modern (1908-1917) of the paper knives that I could find. Along side the Fabergé mark was the workmaster's mark of Anders Nevalainen St Petersburg. The flattened nephrite blade really did resemble a knife. The tapering gold handle was enamelled in translucent white over a guilloché ground, within gold stylised foliate borders. It terminated with a reeded finial.

I can only imagine how splendid one of these paper knives would have looked on a large, polished desk top, alongside a nephrite and silver desk seal,  or perhaps a nephrite and silver desk clock.

Knife shape, Nevalainen, 1908-1917

New art galleries: Alicante in Spain, and three in France

Spain

Alicante is the capital of the Spanish Province of Alicante, in the south of the country near Valencia. The population of this Mediterranean port is about 340,000.

Like Holon in Israel, I suspect Alicante is a small city trying to market itself as a cultural centre. Two interesting sites have existed in the town for a long time. Firstly the Archaeological Museum, located in a renovated old Alicante hospital of San Juan de Dios. Exhibits include valuable finds from the Paleolithic era found in different sites in and around Alicante. Secondly Gravina Fine Arts Museum houses the art collection of the Alicante County Council, from the Middle Ages until 1900. The museum is located in a C17th building that was specifically converted for Gravina.

Alicante Museum of Contemporary Art, Spain.
See the modern extension to the right of the original 17th century building.

Now another important museum has opened. Alicante Museum of Contemporary Art is in the Old Quarter of town. It houses a major collection of C20th art, based largely on the works donated by Eusebio Sempere; his entire private collection of modern art! Here I am at a slight disadvantage since I was in Alicante for only a short time, don’t know much about Eusebio Sempere and I am much stronger academically on art painted before 1930.

From what I can find, Eusebio Sempere (1923-85) was born in Alicante and did his training in the visual arts locally, at the Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos de Valencia. In 1948 he moved to Paris with a scholarship to continue his studies. There he established contact with avant-garde artist like Kandinsky, Mondrian, Picasso, Matisse and Klee. His favourite technique became the silkscreen, often using abstract and geometric elements. In 1960 he moved to Madrid. In 1964, Sempere had an exhibition in the Bertha Schaefer Gallery in New York.

Casa de La Asegurada (1685) is the oldest and most baroque civil building in Alicante. The building has had a long and varied history - it has previously been a granary and a business school, but since 1977 has been home to a contemporary art gallery which houses one of the most important C20th art collections existing in Spain today. Donated by local artist and sculptor, Eusebio Sempere, the art objects includes paintings, sculptures, mixed technique and lithographs by Spanish artists like Juan Gris, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso. The collection also includes non-Spanish artists like Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall and Wassily Kandinsky.

The museum was closed for major extension works and re-opened in 2011. Although the gallery walls are stark, this museum is worth visiting as it is located within Alicante's old architecture, opening onto the Plaza Santa María. And the museum is located next to the Santa Maria Basilica, a C14th gothic church built above an Islamic mosque. Most importantly the museum competes with Madrid, offering access to famous contemporary art works. And best of all, entry is free.

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Now to France.

Musee Bonnard, in Le Cannet, France 

Opened in June 2011, Musee Bonnard will be a treat for art history fans of Pierre Bonnard  (1867–1947). For the last 25 years of his life, Bonnard lived in the Cote d'Azur village of Le Cannet near Cannes, the perfect place for an artist who celebrated Mediterranean light. His sunlit rooms and gardens, filled with his wife Marthe and sundry relatives and friends, shined with intense colour. The opening exhibition starred 40 of his paintings, including Late Impressionist-Nabi landscapes and still-life paintings with textured surfaces.

Musee Lalique opened in July 2011. Immediately following the First World War, René Lalique (1860-1945) chose to build his factory in Wingen-sur-Moder, a village in northern Alsace. Today this is the only place where Lalique crystal is still produced, so it is sensible that a museum dedicated to his artwork, from small jewellery to large architectural looking objects, be located in Wingen.

Lalique art objects, Wingen-sur-Moder, France

Two-and-a-half hours southeast of Paris, in the part of Champagne that borders Burgundy, is a lovely little village where Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) and his family spent 30 years of their happiest summers. Since February 2011, art pilgrims and visitors to Essoyes have been able learn about the life of the family in Renoir's studio, Du Côté des Renoir, and enjoy the landscape from vantage points where the artist painted. Visitors can also pay homage at his grave site in the local cemetery.

Du Côté des Renoir, Essoyes, France



Napoleon, The Briars and the Melbourne connection: The Balcombe family

Earlier this year I published a post about Napoleon's house in exile, on St Helena Island and noted that sections of the Napoleon’s island House Museum were crumbling and in urgent need of repair. An appeal has been launched by the Foundation Napoleon to rescue the house, its grounds and its woods, hopefully attracting tourists and historians back to St Helena.

What I didn’t know and didn’t mention in that post was that there was a connection between Napoleon Bonaparte, St Helena Island and Melbourne. His intended prison home, Longwood, was not finished by the time he arrived on the island in December 1815. So Bonaparte had to stay with the merchant and Purveyor for the East India Company William Balcombe (1779-1929). The prisoner lived in a garden pavilion on the family estate, The Briars, and according to all reports, Napoleon became particular friends with the family's youngest teenage daughter Betsy.

Betsy’s friendship with the “enemy” did not endear the Balcombes to the governor of St Helena. But it seems more likely that William was suspected of being an intermediary in clandestine correspondence with Paris. In either case, William Balcombe decided to return to Britain in 1818 with all his family. Napoleon, as it happened, died soon after.

An excellent blog called Reflections on A Journey to St Helena was very useful. It discussed why the Balcombe family lived in very straitened circumstances back in England and why the governor of St Helena might have eventually removed his objections to Balcombe's juicy new preferment, a government post as Colonial Treasurer in New South Wales in 1823.

The Briars 1842, Balcombe homestead near Melbourne

The Balcombe family eventually settled in Australia in 1824. William died after only a few years while still Treasurer (in 1829), leaving his widow with a handsome land grant but no pension. She returned to London to plead her case and the Colonial Office gave her money to return to Sydney, together with promises of government posts for her sons.

William’s son Alexander Balcombe (1811-77) took up lots of land at Mt Martha just outside Melbourne in 1840. He and his wife were creating a large family, so they quickly built a rough-hewn slab house, and called it The Briars. The 1842 Briars homestead, one of the oldest pastoral properties on the peninsula outside Melbourne, recalled The Briars home on St Helena Island.

The family prospered and Mrs Balcombe moved to East Melbourne sometime in the 1850s, first into a prefabricated house that used British materials and an Indian design. Then the Balcombes built a new and large house in East Melbourne c1857 which they called East Court. Alexander Balcombe must have been dividing his time between town and country. He settled down to pastoral pursuits and the life of a country squire, was appointed a magistrate in 1855 and was first chairman of the Mount Eliza Road Board from 1860 on.

Napoleon's own furniture, in The Briars museum near Melbourne

In another remarkable connection, Dame Mabel Balcombe Brookes (1890-1975), Australia’s most famous society and charity leader, was the granddaughter of Alexander Balcombe. She was the president of every charitable and cultural organisation in Melbourne. And she married well. Her husband Norman Brookes won Wimbledon in both the singles and doubles, and was later appointed commissioner for the Australian branch of the British Red Cross in Cairo. After the war ended, Norman resumed his previous employment at Australian Paper Mills Co. Ltd, becoming chairman in 1921. He too led a blessed life.

But it was Dame Mabel’s connection with Napoleon that most interests me here. In her older age, she wrote St Helena Story and had the book published in 1960. She wrote of her family's substantial collections of furniture, objets d'art, books and relics of Napoleon. She even purchased the freehold of the pavilion that Napoleon had occupied on her great-grandfather's estate on St Helena, and presented it to a grateful French nation in 1960.

Dame Mabel Brookes’ city home, East Court, had some of the furniture used by Napoleon on St Helena, a teak table used by both Wellington and Napoleon, a writing desk bearing Napoleon's kick marks on the lower panels and the Frenchman’s death mask. The Briars homestead near Melbourne is now a museum where visitors can see the Dame Mabel Brookes Napoleonic Collection. It includes furniture that Bonaparte shared upon his stay with the Balcombes, plus some of his hair, papers, letters, a legion d'honneur medal and artworks.

The St Helena Story 1960, a book written by William Balcombe's great grand daughter

I was interested to see a reference to Betsy Balcome Abell's book To Befriend an Emperor: Betsy Balcombe's Memoirs of Napoleon on St Helena, Welwyn Garden City, Ravenhall, 2005. Betsy, the little girl who had been so kind to Prisoner Napoleon, was the great aunt of our other author, Dame Mabel Balcombe Brookes.

The link between Napoleon Bonaparte, The Briars on St Helena Island, William Betsy and Alexander Balcombe, The Briars in Melbourne and Dame Mabel Brookes' Napoleonic Collection is irresistible. The Briars homestead-museum is open daily.

**

The connection between Napoleon Bonaparte and the Australian politician Michael Kroger is less persuasive, but the timing (for my blog post) is sublime.  My Napoleon Obsession noted that Kroger collected a vast array of Napoleonic objets d'art in his Melbourne home, taking decades to amass imperial eagles, candelabras, clocks, vases, paintings, furniture and military paraphernalia. In October 2011, all these precious Napoleonic objects went up for auction in Paris. And left Melbourne for good.

Buyers of Napoleonic artefacts at the Paris auction did not seem to have been deterred by the Euro’s recent difficulties. A clock in Levanto marble, with rich gilt and bronze decoration, sold for €22,000. A watercolour pennant design for Napoleon's 2nd Artillery sold for €39,000. A post-abdication portrait of Napoleon, by the school of Delaroche, made €39,000.

Portrait of Napoleon, by the school of Delaroche, painted 1845 or after

Other collectors of Napoleonic artefacts existed, of course, including collectors I had written up in this blog. The Napoleon Room in Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight, for example, was large enough to accommodate the sprawling 22-piece acanthus-tailed griffin suite of furniture designed for the Emperor's uncle, Cardinal Fesch. All the furniture and artefacts in the Napoleon Room were bought by Lord Lever specifically because of their associations with the French Emperor, although many of these associations have subsequently been brought into question. 

Falaknuma Palace, Hyderabad

Because the Nizams were a ruling Moghul family in Hyderabad who had not fought in the first Indian War of Independence, they were given special privileges by the British. Thus although Hyderabad was just one of the princely states of British India, it was allowed to retain control of its internal affairs. This worked out well for the Nizams - they ruled their state as a inherited monarchy for 223 years (1724-1947), until Indian independence.

Falaknuma dining table - longest in the world?

As befitted a wealthy, cultivated royal family, the Nizams aspired to be important patrons of the arts. Their stunning and indecently expensive architecture, pearls, diamonds, furniture, art works, jade, carriages and cars came from various cultural traditions - often European, blended with Hindu and Islamic tastes. Of their ten palaces, one was more beautiful than the next.

Nawab Vikar-ul-Umra, the Prime Minister of Hyderabad, started building Falaknuma Palace in 1884, choosing to use an English architect. He completed the giant task within 9 years. Alas he couldn’t pay all the costs, so by 1898 the palace had to became the home of his nephew, the 6th Nizam Nawab Mahboob Ali Khan. His family used and loved the palace until after the end of WW2.

Falaknuma Palace was, since the beginning, filled with Italian marble, stained glass windows and Venetian chandeliers in its 220 rooms and 22 halls. When an important hotel chain started renovating and restoring the palace in 2000, they wanted to preserve the taste of the Nizams wherever possible in the new hotel. The rooms and halls were decorated, as of old, with ornate furniture, rich handcrafted tapestries and brocades. They retained 40 huge Venetian chandeliers and intricate frescos, paintings and statues.

Falaknuma Durbar Hall

The old palace opened as a hotel in November 2010. As the Taj Hotel’s history page reports,  the palace library is home to the rarest of manuscripts and books, selected and brought back by the Nizam himself. Its walnut carved roof was designed to imitate the one at Windsor Castle. A marbled staircase still takes guests to the upper floor, complete with balustrades, marble figurines holding candelabras and an historical picture gallery along the staircase walls.

Although spouse and I always stay in university digs or cheap bed-and-breakfasts when overseas, the new hotel has two significant rooms that I would like to cast my historian’s eyes over. Firstly the 101-seat dining hall, considered the largest in the world, where the Nizam ensured that his banqueting guests ate from solid gold plates. Secondly the Durbar Hall, complete with its carved wooden ceilings, long line of chandeliers and parquet flooring. The Durbar Hall, typically the ruler’s formal meeting space, once hosted royal guests like King George V and Czar Nicholas II.

The renovated palace hotel, 2010

Falaknuma Palace Hotel even has a resident historian, Mr Prabhakar Mahindrakar. The Style Saloniste blog tells of meeting and spending time with Mr Mahindrakar, examining the architectural and art treasures of the palace hotel. Her interior photos are worth a closer look.

Hyderabad, India

Maharaja splendour in Canada

In conjunction with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Art Gallery of Ontario hosted an extraordinary exhibition in 2010-2011. The exhibition explored in depth the opulent world of the maharajas, from early 18th century until Indian independence in 1947. Maharaja: The Splendour of India’s Royal Courts allowed Canadians to see for the first time 200+ spectacular works of art created for India’s great kings — including paintings, furniture, decorative arts and jewellery. These magnificent objects chronicled the many aspects of royal life and celebrated a legacy of cultural patronage by generations of maharajas, both in India and in Europe.

Golden thrones

The jewellery was stunning. Just one example will do... very nicely indeed. The Maharaja of Patiala bought the most fabulous De Beers Diamond from Cartier of Paris who set it as the centre piece of a ceremonial necklace in 1928. The five rows of diamonds encrusted in a platinum chain became known as the Patiala Necklace, holding the seventh largest cut diamond in the world and the largest single commission in Cartier’s history. In recent years, Cartier re-found the necklace, bought it and spent four years restoring it.

2,930 brilliant diamonds in the Patiala Necklace.

Should the viewer be proud of the maharajas’ amazing patronage of all the arts? Or cringe at the outrageous distribution of scarce resources in India back then? I personally think I would be angry.

But the Ontario museum was very clear. It was the first exhibition to celebrate the opulent world of the maharajas and their unique culture of artistic patronage. The curators and interpreters did a wonderful job of presenting the treasures in a historical context, learning how the rulers lived, what they valued, the political role they played and how, ultimately, the forces of history circumscribed their powers.  I suppose their influence partially depended on how many Princely States there were in India proper. Wiki estimates that the number ranged from 160 in 1872 to 202 in 1941.

One element of colonial history need not have worried the Canadians. When the V&A showed the same exhibition in London, they made a serious attempt to put the myth of the maharajas in its proper courtly context, to explore the visual and artistic expressions of Indian kingship before and after the maharajas' Victorian heyday. As a result, the V & A show was haunted by the sad story of the princes and the British, telling how the British first bullied the princes into submission, schooling them in western tastes, then both  mocked and envied the monsters they had created. Finally, the British quit India, leaving the maharajas to be abolished. The Ontario exhibition was presumably not haunted by colonial guilt.

1934 Rolls Royce Phantom II, custom-built

Processions in India during the 1800s were complex events that celebrated various kinds of power and prestige. They revealed tensions in political authority, social hierarchy and religious tradition. And the British representatives had to assert their colonial role without appearing to endorse or participate in the worship of Hindu deities who formed the focus of much of the event. So company-paintings were produced by Indian artists, presumably for British buyers, many of whom would have been employed by the East India Company.

Mysore Scroll, mid 1800s, now 6 ms long

Paintings of Indian architecture, occupations, castes, rituals and festivals in India were fascinating eg The Mysore Scroll with its 1,250 individuals portraits in mid-1800s dress. The British often used company-paintings as illustrations for publications, or sent them home as souvenirs. This type of painting declined in popularity around the 1840s with the introduction of photography.

A less arty but perhaps more spectacular exhibit was Star of India, an amazing 1934 Rolls Royce Phantom II custom-built for His Highness Thakore Sahib of Rajkot. Built with a polished aluminum hood and wing panels, the Star of India was expected to fetch a mind-boggling £8 million when it went on the open market in 2009! Even a German museum page that is normally blase about the top end of the Rolls Royce range became a drooling mess when examining the Star of India. It was not just a car; rather it was a symbol of a bygone era, when the maharajahs reigned in India and displayed their unfathomable wealth in the shape of fanciful and ever more lavishly designed cars. Unfathomable seems to be an appropriate word.

For those who couldn’t get to the exhibition, I have three recommendations. See the stunning images in Maharaja: The Splendour of India’s Royal Courts at The Victoria & Albert Museum, in Alain Truong's blog.

Anna Jackson and Amin Jaffer, Maharaja: The Splendour of India's Royal Courts, 2009

Or read Maharaja: The Splendour of India's Royal Courts (2009) by Anna Jackson and Amin Jaffer. Their goal was to examine the real and perceived worlds of the maharaja from the early 18th century to 1947, when the Indian Princes finally ceded their territories into the modern states of India and Pakistan. Or read Maharaja: The Spectacular Heritage of Princely India (1988, 2009) by Andrew Robinson and Sumio Uchiyama. Both books show that the Maharajas spent their lives in extravagant expenditure and unparalleled splendour. The authors created quite a picture, full of throne rooms, gilded ceilings, crystal fountains, gardens with strutting peacocks, treasures made of precious metals, bejewelled elephants, weddings, celebrations and festivals.

See a splendid film on the Maharaja Collection,  recorded  while the treasures were still in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Regency furniture: metamorphic, clever

Rooms organised during the Regency (loosely defined as 1795-1837) as libraries often had floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. The upper shelves were difficult to reach, so movable library stairs were invaluable.

Enter the Regency era metamorphic library chair!

Clive Taylor has shown that the tables, chairs and stools containing library steps were patented in Great Britain by Robert Campbell in 1774 but this innovative chair-based design did not become immediately popular. Once the Regency was established, a neo-classical interpretation of Campbell’s Metamorphic Library Chair concept started to become popular in London. Any early attributions rely heavily on two contemporary sketches. The first image, by Rudolph Ackermann in 1811, showed a Morgan and Sanders chair, while the second was of a Gillows chair in 1834.

English library chair cum ladder, 1820

What does metamorphic mean, in this context? The word was used to describe a piece of furniture where the same structure could be reused in an alternative form. In the case of a small staircase, the library chair could be turned upside down and steps pulled out. In the case of the small writing desk, the library chair could be turned upside down and part of the chair would be reconfigured into its new role as a desk top.

And just as they were fascinated with mechanical curiosities and dual-purpose furniture during the Regency, so we are today. The design was clever, compact, saved space in the library and looked good.

Metamorphic/mechanical furniture had been used elsewhere. There was plenty of discussion in the antiques literature about clever cabinet makers who designed and made lovely objects for the courts of Louis XV and Louis XVI in France.

Furthermore it was common for French, German and British military officers to order comfortable furniture while travelling behind their armies to battle fields. Sean Clarke has shown that at least for JW Allen Co and John Shepherd Co, campaign furniture it was a natural addition to their trunk making role. If this was true, the majority of makers of campaign furniture were to be found under trunk makers as opposed to cabinet makers in the trade directories. Ordinary cabinet makers, asked by army officers to adapt their standard work, would also make travel furniture as one-off bespoke pieces.

Of course the designs of these officers’ objects had to be light, easily packed and small enough to fit into military camps. As well as elegant! As you can see from the British Lieut General's example, he wanted portable trunks that could be reassembled into a beautiful mahogany and brass chest of drawers.

a Lieut General's brassed edged mahogany campaign chest, British army, c1840

Christie’s described their library chair as follows. A Regency mahogany metamorphic library open armchair, after a design by Morgan and Sanders, early C19th. Note the curved tablet toprail above a horizontal bar splat, the downswept reeded scrolled arms, the caned seat and reeded sabre legs, opening to form a four-tread set of library steps.

Kenneth Hutter Auctions’ Regency mahogany metamorphic library chair was similar. The hinged seat falls forward to form four steps, the highest being 28". Note the reeded frame with caned seat and scrolled arms. In chair form, the object is 36" high.

Antiques Now showed a similar Regency metamorphic library chair made in c1811 and attributed to Morgan and Sanders. As with the other neoclassical style Trafalgar chairs, this one could be converted into a small set of library steps. But here was something different. Apparently Morgan and Sanders offered upgrades to their standard design; this rare example included over-scrolled uprights and a caned back.

Antiques Atlas agreed that dual-purpose chairs and tables became fashionable as wealthy merchants and landowners revelled in the novelty and ingenuity of space-saving mechanical furniture. And they agreed that most metamorphic chairs of this type concealed library steps. What was exciting about the Antiques Atlas example was that the chair opened to reveal a small library table. It was presumably designed and built in France during the reign of Louis XVI or during the early years of the Napoleonic Empire (1790-1805). The chair was made of walnut with a carved, demi-lune or fan-shaped backrest.

French library chair cum table, 1790-1805

Meissen vases with superb landscape paintings: 1870

The Meissen Company, near Dresden, was the first European factory to discover the formula of hard paste porcelain, at a time when the Chinese had been making a fortune importing this very desirable product. But the discovery wasn’t easy. Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and Chinese porcelain fanatic, was desperate to crack the code. He imprisoned the chemist Johann Friedrich Boettger (1682-1719) at Albrechtsberg Castle and probably would have kept him there for life, in order to find the magical formula. Fortunately for Boettger, he found it!

The Meissen Company was founded in early C18th and delivered porcelain of the quality and purity that made that small town famous.

Dresden scenes on Leuteritz vases, 1870, Meissen (Country Life photo)

From 1720 on, the fame of Meissen depended largely on the painter Johann Gregorius Höroldt (1696-1775). It seems impossible to overstate Höroldt’s influence on much of Europe’s developing porcelain makers. He used Chinese exoticism, European landscapes and naturalistic birds and flowers, sublimely painted.

Meissen also had the sculptor Johann Joachim Kändler (1706-1775). Kändler was appointed court sculptor by Augustus II the Strong in 1731. He was responsible for the introduction of new forms for porcelain sets, including a wide range of figurines.

Wealthy families couldn’t buy up Meissen porcelain fast enough. And rival companies couldn’t get Meissen’s secrets fast enough, to develop their own porcelain lines. Naturally Meissen became a symbol of wealth and status, and in the 19th century the factory earned both Royal commissions and medals at the various World Exhibitions.

I have some good 19th century Meissen pieces in my own collection, which I thought were rather lovely. Then I saw a pair of Meissen vases, dating from about 1870, in David Brower Antiques. I am quoting them. Born in 1818, Ernst Leuteritz joined the factory in 1836 as an apprentice and by 1843 he was engaged as a modeller. This impressive pair of topographical vases was created by Leuteritz and are one of the most important and valuable works of 19th century Meissen porcelain available on the market today. Standing at 61cms high and produced in 1870, the vases show two different scenes of Dresden rendered in exquisite detail, a view of Pilnitz and a view of Schloss Weesenstein. Leuteritz first created the design for these vases in 1856, and in 1862 they were selected as one of the key pieces at the World Exhibition held in London.

Leuteritz vase, 1880, Meissen, based on a painting by Caspar Netscher. 69 cm high

Vases of this scale and detail are rare as they were only made for exhibition or special commission. One reason is because large objects of this nature (61 cm high) were very difficult to make and decorate. Minor imperfections in the structure of the piece or faults in the decoration and glaze were unforgiving, often causing failure during the firing processes. These monumental pieces are a testament to the experience and skills of the Meissen craftsmen.

Another lovely, tall Meissen vase was created by Ernst Leuteritz, this time exquisitely painted with Dutch-style images from the C17th.  The 1880 vase was decorated on a cobalt blue ground, heightened by detailed gilded scroll work and embellishments. The panel on the front was  based on a painting by Caspar Netscher (1639–1684) while the reverse was based on a painting by Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667) which depicts the artist with his wife Isabella DeWolff in a tavern.

Far easier, for both the porcelain maker and the artist, were smaller flat plates that rarely broke in the kiln. Christies had a reticulated Meissen plate from c1879, painted with a view of Wesenstein inside a gilt scroll cartouche. The dark-blue-ground well gilt had scrolls suspending swags of flowers and the border was pierced with trellis pattern sections between panels of flowers, moulded with flowerheads. The scene was beautifully painted, but I have to admit that the entire plate was only 25 cm wide.

Scene of Wesenstein, Meissen reticulated plate c1879

The Arcanum: The Extraordinary True Story is a super little book, written by Janet Gleeson and published by Little, Brown and Co. in 1999.  It tells the convoluted story of the invention of European porcelain and the founding of the Meissen Porcelain Company.