Rectangular mahogany and mahogany veneer... - Lot 283 - Osenat

Lot 283
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Estimation :
12000 - 15000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 28 125EUR
Rectangular mahogany and mahogany veneer... - Lot 283 - Osenat
Rectangular mahogany and mahogany veneer FORTE PIANO decorated with chased and gilded bronze appliques on all sides, such as: famous musicians, swans drinking from ewers on either side of sheaves of wheat, profiles inspired by the antique in laurel wreaths, volutes, lyre and palmettes. The interior opening with folding flaps presents a small locker and discovers the soundboard marked "Erard Frères à Paris 1807 N°7181". Panels of eglomised glass with polychrome and gilded decoration on a blue background of profiles in medallions enclosed in lozenges in frames of palmettes on a black background on the keyboard bar, the one in the centre signed Antoine Rascalon Ft and dated 1807. It rests on tapered legs adorned with rings and surmounted by busts of winged women in gilt bronze, finished with casters. It includes four pedals held by a lyre: dampers, mute, bassoon, celeste. Empire period H: 88 - W: 169 - D: 66 cm (some veneering accidents, restorations and cracks) Provenance: Collection Jean LEFEVRE (1908- 1965), architect. Exhibition: "La légende napoléonienne au pays de Liège", Liège 1939, N°215, exposed as having belonged to Cambaceres Antoine RASCALON (1742-1830) benefits from a rather thorough study1, but we still know today only few things on this "Sculptor Decorator". Received as a woodcarver at the Academy of St Luc in 1770, he practised this activity until 1789. He decorated his furniture with ornaments and gilded subjects engraved with drypoint under glass and excelled in the decoration of eglomerate glass on mirrors, pianos or chests of drawers and became "sculptor and engraver in gold on glass" after the revolution, as attested by the pianoforte that we present today. He participated in the exhibition of industrial products in 1802. Listed as a cabinetmaker in "Les Fournisseurs de Napoléon Ier et des deux Impératrices" and established on the Faubourg Saint-Denis, under the Empire, he obtained an honourable mention at the 1806 exhibition and designated himself: "Faubourg St Denis, N°144, maison de la Manufacture de Porcelaine, au dessus de la foire St. Laurent/ Rascalon/ sculpteur. Rascalon/ sculptor-decorator,/ Does everything that concerns the Building, engraves in gold, on glass, the Ornemens in all kinds and generally all that concerns the pieces of furniture and the turn of the glasses. In Paris". The report of the jury mentions" (Rascalon employed to decorate the pieces of furniture, ornaments painted under glass and gave evidence of good taste, in the use of these ornaments". In 1807, Rascalon, a sculptor and engraver of gold on glass, submitted a tender for the service of the Imperial Furniture Guard, which included mainly pedestal tables at 2,000 fr each.3 Although the technique of eglomised glass has been around since antiquity, it was brought back into fashion by Jean-Baptiste Glomy (1711-1786), who gave his name to this decoration, which consisted of attaching a sheet of gold or silver to the glass and then engraving this sheet with a dry point to create a decoration. These decorations made the instruments of the Érard brothers a success, as they were associated with Rascalon, and at the time their clients included the most senior figures of the royal and imperial courts. The piano-forte was conceived by the Florentine harpsichord maker Bartholomeo Cristoforo (1655-1731), who wished to give the instrument more nuanced expressive possibilities by allowing the player to vary the intensity of the sounds according to the force exerted on the keys. He invented a string-striking mechanism that allowed for a much more powerful sound and adapted it to the harpsichord case. From the Consulate, under the impetus of Sébastien (1752-1831) and Jean-Baptiste Erard (1749-1826), the pianoforte became different from the Louis XVI instruments on the aesthetic level. The case of the piano is decorated with a gilded bronze decoration such as: Renommée sounding the trumpet, mascarons or centaur musician. The tapered legs are generally surmounted by winged busts in gilded or patinated bronze, busts of winged women in gilded bronze in the base in the case of the fortepiano presented. The register of the Erard company mentions under n° 7181, the delivery on March 5, 1807 of this fortepiano for Mr Lafitte. In all likelihood, it can only be Jacques Laffitte, the one later nicknamed "the banker of kings", and "the king of bankers". Born in Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) on 24 October 1767 into a family of ten children of modest origin, he was first apprenticed to his father as a carpenter, then became a third clerk in a notary's office and then a clerk with the merchant Formalaguès, for whom he left for Paris. In May 1788, he joined Perrégaux as a clerk (during the Revolution, the Perrégaux bank was the bank of the Committee of Public Safety because of its foreign relations). His meeting with the banker Jean Frédéric Perrégaux (1744-1808) was to be a decisive step in his life, and by
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