A PAIR OF LATE LOUIS XVI ORMOLU AND GILT-COPPER WALL-APPLIQUES

This pair of wall-appliques was formerly in the collection of Georges Hoentschel (1855-1915), a French Officier de la Légion d'Honneur, architect, decorator and grand amateur who ceded the majority of his decorative arts collection to his friend John Pierpont Morgan, who in turned gifted it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The present wall-appliques were subsequently acquired by French politician Paul Eugène Dutasta (1873-1926) and later formed part of the collections of Argentinian socialite Corinna Kavanagh.

These wall-appliques were most certainly executed by the celebrated ciseleur-doreur Pierre Gouthière (1732-c.1813). The quality of execution, visible particularly in the naturalistic representation of the various types of flowers and foliage, is indeed worthy of Gouthière. Furthermore, the use of copper rather than bronze to the central plate indicates the work of an orfèvre or silversmith, in which capacity Gouthière first trained.