THE DESIGN ATTRIBUTED TO HENRI AND GEORGE PANNIER, L'ESCALIER DE CRISTAL, PARIS, LATE 19TH CENTURY

Recent scholarship has revealed this model, specifically the distinctive clock design, as the genius of George and Henry Pannier for the haut-luxefirm of l’Escalier de Cristal. Notably, in 1885, Georges and Henry Pannier succeeded their father and, much in the tradition of the 18th century marchands-merciers, often commissioned fashionable designers and ébénistessuch as Edouard Lièvre and Gabriel Viardot to create ‘sinojaponais’ decorations incorporating enamel, Baccarat crystal, Japanese lacquer and other exotic materials. L’Escalier de Cristal ultimately became the foremost purveyors of masterpieces of the Japonismemovement in the last quarter of the 19^th century. The present clock design appears in Pannier’s carnet rouge which survives from the firm’s operation during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries (A. Masseau & D. Masseau, L’Escalier de Cristal: le luxe à Paris 1809-1923, Paris, 2021, p. 241). Two related clock garnitures, one in blue cloisonne enamel and the other in gilt-decorated porcelain, are illustrated op. cit. 178. The latter example in porcelain was sold at Chistie’s, London, 20 May 2021, lot 131 (£37,500).