Casket and Stand
.1 (casket): 13 × 24 1/4 × 16 1/2 inches (33.02 × 61.6 × 41.91 cm)
.2 (stand): 34 3/4 × 29 1/4 × 22 inches (88.27 × 74.3 × 55.88 cm)
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XVII Biennale des Antiquaires, Monte Carlo, Monaco, August 1–17, 2003;
“Hôtel Lambert: Une collection princière,” Sotheby’s Paris, October 6–11, 2022;
The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF), Maastricht, Netherlands, March 11–19, 2023;
The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF), Maastricht, Netherlands, March 9–14, 2024
Made to
store jewels or precious objects, this casket and stand boast luxurious inlaid
surface decorations of natural materials and metalwork, finished with gleaming
gilt-bronze mounts. The design star of his day, André Charles Boulle had
clients across Europe, including the French king Louis XIV. While cabinetmakers
did not stamp or sign their works at the time, this casket is a well-documented
design, made at the height of Boulle’s royal favor.
Other
designers copied Boulle’s signature style or updated existing pieces long after
his death. This stand’s mounts were reworked in the later 1700s.
Private collection, UK, by 1985;
Purchased at their sale, Highly Important French Furniture, Christie’s, London, June 20, 1985, lot 60, by a European collector [1];
With Galerie Perrin, Paris, by August 2003-2008 [2];
Purchased from Galerie Perrin by Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al-Thani, Paris, 2008-2022 [3];
Purchased at his sale, Hôtel Lambert: une Collection Princière, Sotheby’s Paris, October 11, 2022, lot 22, by Galerie Léage, Paris, 2022-2024 [4];
Purchased from Galerie Léage by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2024.
NOTES:
[1] According to Christie’s London, in email correspondence with MacKenzie Mallon, Provenance Specialist, May 2024, Nelson-Atkins curatorial files. The identities of both the seller and buyer are currently unknown.
[2] Exhibited by Galerie Perrin at the 15th Biennale de Monaco, Place du Casino, Monte-Carlo, August 1-17, 2003. See Brook S. Mason, “Decorative Arts Diary,” Artnet.com, http://www.artnet.com/magazine/reviews/mason2/mason8-6-03.asp .
[3] According to object documentation provided by Galerie Léage, Nelson-Atkins curatorial files. A similar stand (without a casket) was sold at Robert de Balkany: Rome & the Côte d’Azur, Christie’s London, March 22-23, 2017, lot 71. The sale catalogue described the stand on offer as “almost certainly” the one sold at the June 20, 1985 auction (and this assumption was repeated in the October 11, 2022 sale catalogue), but there are in fact subtle stylistic differences between the two stands. The Nelson-Atkins stand was in the 1985 and 2022 sales, but not the auction in 2017. The Museum's casket and stand have been together since at least the 1985 sale.
[4] Galerie Léage offered this object at the 2023 and 2024 European Fine Art Fairs, Maastricht, Netherlands.
Highly Important French Furniture, Christie’s London, Thursday 20 June 1985, lot 60, pp. 74-75 (ill.)
Alexandre Pradère, French Furniture Makers: The Art of the Ébéniste from Louis XIV to the Revolution (Malibu, CA: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1989): no. 149, p. 104.
Françoise Chauvin, "Le grand classicisme français au soleil." Connaissance des arts, no. 607 (July-August 2003): 120, 122 (ill.)
"Galerie Perrin," 15e Biennale de Monaco, exh. cat. (Monte-Carlo: 15e Biennale de Monaco, 2003), unpaginated, (ill.).
Brook S. Mason, “Decorative Arts Diary,” Artnet, August 6, 2003, http://www.artnet.com/magazine/reviews/mason2/mason8-6-03.asp (ill.)
Hôtel Lambert, Une Collection Princière, I: Chefs d’Oeuvre. Sotheby’s Paris, 11 October 2022, lot 22, pp. 116-119 (ill.)
Mitchell Owens, “TEFAF Maastricht 2023: 27 Treasures We Wish We Could Take Home,” Architectural Digest Pro, March 14, 2023, https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/tefaf-maastricht-2023-27-treasures (ill.)
