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Lot 44 A COLLECTION FROM AN HOTEL PARTICULIER ON THE AVENUE MONTAIGNE
The following twenty-two lots (lots 44-65) were acquired between
circa 1890 and circa 1930 by an important French industrial family.
The porcelain principally decorated their hôtel particulier on the Avenue Montaigne in central Paris, as depicted in the two 1920s watercolours below. The main collector, a successful industrialist, had a particular taste for magnificent 18th century Meissen and other German manufactories and later he and his son carefully expanded the breadth of the collection to incorporate French porcelain, and in particular, 18th century Sèvres. The family actively lived with the porcelain, with multiple items tastefully ornamenting their well-attended dinner tables, others delicately living behind glass vitrines. The hôtel particulier was in those days a prominent fixture of the Parisian social scene and the pieces accompanied the family in most gatherings.
During the Second World War, the collection was confiscated by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg following the occupation of France in May 1940, and it was subsequently restituted in 1946. In 1962 the collection was carefully wrapped up and put in strong wooden crates which were then left unopened for over 50 years. In October 2014 the same dusty crates were finally opened up and their beautiful contents revealed. The same family now three generations later is offering this extraordinary collection for sale.
This is the second and final portion of the collection to be offered
in these Rooms. The last portion will be offered at Christie’s, South Kensington, in Spring 2016.
The following twenty-two lots (lots 44-65) were acquired between
circa 1890 and circa 1930 by an important French industrial family.
The porcelain principally decorated their hôtel particulier on the Avenue Montaigne in central Paris, as depicted in the two 1920s watercolours below. The main collector, a successful industrialist, had a particular taste for magnificent 18th century Meissen and other German manufactories and later he and his son carefully expanded the breadth of the collection to incorporate French porcelain, and in particular, 18th century Sèvres. The family actively lived with the porcelain, with multiple items tastefully ornamenting their well-attended dinner tables, others delicately living behind glass vitrines. The hôtel particulier was in those days a prominent fixture of the Parisian social scene and the pieces accompanied the family in most gatherings.
During the Second World War, the collection was confiscated by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg following the occupation of France in May 1940, and it was subsequently restituted in 1946. In 1962 the collection was carefully wrapped up and put in strong wooden crates which were then left unopened for over 50 years. In October 2014 the same dusty crates were finally opened up and their beautiful contents revealed. The same family now three generations later is offering this extraordinary collection for sale.
This is the second and final portion of the collection to be offered
in these Rooms. The last portion will be offered at Christie’s, South Kensington, in Spring 2016.
A MEISSEN CRINOLINE GROUP OF 'LA TASSE DE CHOCOLAT'
CIRCA 1740
Closed2 December 2015
Price Realised
GBP 50,000
More Information
Specialist note
This group is recorded in Kändler’s Taxa of April-June 1737 and exists with a number of variations to the figural composition. The group was inspired by an engraving by Laurent Cars after Boucher depicting a scene from Molière’s comedy ‘Le Sicilien ou l’Amour peintre’. A similar group with a table and chocolate-service is illustrated by Dr. Erika Pauls-Eisenbeiss, German Porcelain of the Eighteenth Century, Vol. I, 1972, pp. 194-195 and another is illustrated by Stefan Bursche, Meissen, Steinzeug und Porzellan des 18. Jahrhunderts Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin, Berlin, 1980, p. 297, cat no. 306. A variant of this model with a kneeling cavalier, from the same collection as the present lot, was sold in these Rooms on 2 June 2015, lot 28 and another group with the table on 21 November 2005, lot 91.