Martin Carlin, maître in 1766.
This remarkable guéridon is a rare example of the most luxurious and fashionable furniture of the Louis XVI period produced by the marchand-merciers. Small tables or tables en chiffonnière mounted with fashionable and expensive Sèvres porcelain plaques were first developed in the rocaille style by marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier in about 1760 as a collaboration with ébénistes such as Bernard II van Risen Burgh, called BVRB, and Roger Vandercruse, called Lacroix.
This table, with its circular porcelain top painted with charming floral sprays within its distinctive basket-weave pierced gallery, is part of a well-known group of elegant tables produced by Martin Carlin in the 1770s. Most examples from the group just have porcelain plaques to the frieze, a form which was probably introduced in 1771, when Poirier acquired from the Manufacture Royale de Sèvres: ‘3 quarts de cercles 15l...45l’. The table for which those plaques was intended may be identified with that in the Metropolitan Museum, New York as its plaques are marked with the date letter for 1771 (illustrated in F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, Vol.III, New York, 1970, pp.52-4, no. 297, formerly in the collection of the Comte de Flahaut).
Examples in the group with porcelain tops and porcelain frieze:
-One in the J.Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, formerly in the collection of Alfred de Rothschild at Halton, with porcelain top and frieze, the top dated 1773 and with the painter's mark 'X' for Jacques-François Micaud
- one in the Musée du Louvre (OA 10 467), illustrated in D. Alcouffe et al., Le Mobilier du Musée du Louvre, Dijon, 1993, Vol. I, p.228, cat. 69, the top dated 1774 and also painted by Micaud, a bequest of Baronne Salomon de Rothschild, 1922
Examples with porcelain frieze only:
-one in the Musée du Louvre (OA 10 467), the plaques undated, illustrated in D. Alcouffe et al., Le Mobilier du Musée du Louvre, Dijon, 1993, Vol. I, p.229, no.70, a gift of M. and Mme. Grog-Carven
-another sold from the Peñard y Fernandez Collection, Palais Galliera, Paris, 7 December 1960, lot 129.
-another from the collection of Alix Lacarré, sold at Sotheby's Monaco, 14-15 June 1981, lot 122
-one sold from the collection of Djahanguir Riahi; Christie's, New York, 2 November 2000, lot 45 ($919,000), the plaques unmarked, illustrated here
-and a final example, formerly in the collection of Alphonse de Rothschild, then Edouard de Rothschild, sold at Sotheby's Monaco, 21 May 1978, lot 15.
The painting of the soft-paste, or, ‘pâte tendre’ porcelain plaque of this table is scattered with delicate sprays of flowers and fruits and relates closely to the painting on the interior of a Sèvres punch bowl sold recently from the Rothschild Collection (Christie’s, New York, 13 October 2023, lot 401) and may be by the same hand. it is interesting to note with this respect that the tops of the only other recorded tables of this type with porcelain tops are painted by the specialist flower painter Jacques-François Micaud.
Although unstamped, this table could be attributed to Martin Carlin, who worked first with Poirier and later with Dominique Daguerre to produce this type of highly luxurious and steeply priced porcelain-mounted furniture; a feat not easily replicated by others. Daguerre, the successor to Simon-Philippe Poirier, had a monopoly on porcelain plaques from the Sèvres manufactory at the time, and at Carlin's death, Daguerre owed the ébéniste the very important sum of 3117 livres, demonstrating a substantial collaboration. it is also interesting to note a lacquer secrétaire by Carlin, with a stretcher centering a pierced basket, similar to the galleries on this group of porcelain-mounted tables. However, both the overall proportions and the execution of the basket-weave-form ormolu gallery slightly differ from the well-defined group of guéridons of this from by or attributed to Carlin, all of which have the same somewhat broader proportions and a slightly differing basket weave gallery. Thus, the authorship by another master Parisian ébéniste cannot be ruled out even if Carlin is the maker most often associated with porcelain-mounted furniture. The distinctive frieze mounts and the inlay of the legs of this guéridon could suggest that this lot is the work of another master cabinet-maker of the time; Roger Vandercruse, known as Lacroix. It is entirely possibly that one of the marchands-merciers such as Poirier who, as noted above, was working with Lacroix, commissioned this table as an early prototype for later models further developed and promoted by Carlin.
Further examples of this model of table, which evidently enjoyed great success among elite clients of Poirier and Daguerre, are recorded in eighteenth-century inventories as follows:
-One given to the Princesse Louise Bathilde de Bourbon Condé before 1778, when she went on to pursue her education at the Abbaye de Panthémont:- Une autre petit chiffonnière en baril à deux étages dont le dernier orné de trois pans en porcelaine, fond blanc, le fond en bois de rose richement orné et balustrade en bronze doré d'or moulu.
-One recorded in the collection of the duchesse de Choiseul-Praslin before 1784, when it is precisely described in an Inventory:- Une petite table ronde en bois de rose à panneaux de porcelaine de Sèvres, fond blanc à fleurs à trois pieds de biche et tablette. Le tout orné de balustre à jour, moulures, rosettes et autres accessoires en bronze doré.
-One possibly given by Madame Adélaïde, aunt of Louis XVI, to her friend the duchesse de Narbonne. This table is clearly described during the Revolution:- Une petite table ronde à deux tablettes dont les frises en porcelaine garnie de bronze et balustres de cuivre doré d'or moulu, ouverte et vide, la dite table en bois de rose...
The latter, which had reputedly passed by descent from Mademoiselle de Penthièvre, duchesse d'Orléans, was sold in Paris from the Dubois-Chefdebien Collection, 13-14 February 1942, lot 112.
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