Live Auction 12029The Opulent Eye - 19th Century Furniture, Sculpture, Works of Art, Ceramics & Carpets
A NAPOLEON III ORMOLU-MOUNTED CUT-BRASS-INLAID EBONY, BURR, TULIPWOOD AND SYCAMORE GAMES CASKET, ON STAND
Lot 12 THE PROPERTY OF A LADY

A NAPOLEON III ORMOLU-MOUNTED CUT-BRASS-INLAID EBONY, BURR, TULIPWOOD AND SYCAMORE GAMES CASKET, ON STAND

BY ALPHONSE-GUSTAVE GIROUX, PARIS, CIRCA 1850-60

Closed7 June 2016

Price Realised

GBP 18,750

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A NAPOLEON III ORMOLU-MOUNTED CUT-BRASS-INLAID EBONY, BURR, TULIPWOOD AND SYCAMORE GAMES CASKET, ON STAND
BY ALPHONSE-GUSTAVE GIROUX, PARIS, CIRCA 1850-60
The casket and stand richly inlaid with scrolling stylized foliage, the hinged top of the casket centred by the crowned initials 'KC', and opening to an elaborately fitted interior with four removable games surfaces inlaid in ivory, and many small pieces, some ivory, including chess pieces, chips, dice, dominos, checkers, jockey figures, picks and a rule book, the fall-front revealing two further drawers with fitted interiors enclosing playing cards and a circular games board, the lockplate signed 'Maison Alph Giroux à Paris', the stand fitted with a drawer enclosing a 'Jeu de Derby Steeple-Chase' board, with a shaped frieze and gadrooned legs terminating in round feet
42 ¼ in. (107.5 cm.) high; 30 ½ in. (77.5 cm.) wide; 22 ¾ in. (58 cm.) deep

Sir Henry Isaac Butterfield (d. 1910) and Mary Roosevelt Bourke (d. 1870), at their Place de l'Etoile home, Paris, and thereafter at Cliffe Castle, Keighley, Yorkshire.
By descent to their granddaughter Marie-Louise Roosevelt Butterfield (d. 1984) and Gervas Evelyn Pierrepont (d. 1955), later Earl and Countess Manvers, at Thoresby Hall, and thence by descent.

Specialist note

This games-table, finely veneered in ebony and burr-amboyna and complete with games pieces, comes by direct descent from the Victorian millionaire and textile manufacturer Sir Henry Isaac Butterfield and his American wife Mary Roosevelt Bourke. They started their married life in 1854 in France where Mary was a lady-in-waiting to Empress Eugénie, buying a home on the Place de l'Etoile in Paris and a villa in Cimiez, Nice. After Mary died prematurely in 1870 and their Paris home was struck by a shell during the Commune rising, some possessions where moved to Cliffe Castle which Sir Henry inherited in 1874 and remodelled as a showpiece of international art and French decoration. This games-table perfectly encapsulates the luxurious tastes of the Second Empire, and the link to the French imperial court is all the more fascinating considering that Maison Alphonse Giroux, the maker of this games-table, also supplied objets de luxe to Napoléon III and Empress Eugénie.