Adrian Alan

A Magnificent Gilt-Bronze Mounted Parquetry Commode, After Antoine Gaudreaux's 'Commode Médallier'. The serpentine Vert Maurin marble top above a conforming case set with two cupbo...

A Rare Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Mahogany Cylinder Bureau. By François Linke, Paris. Index Number 100. France, Circa 1890. The top with three quarter pierced gallery. The cylinder front centred by a gilt-bronze foliate framed oval decorated with floral marquetry and a harp and books representing lyric poetry. Flanked by twin-light gilt-bronze candelabra. The roll-top enclosing an arrangement of four small drawers and five small compartments above a gilt-tooled green leather writing surface. The frieze fronted by a central drawer with spring-loaded secret release and faced with a relief-cast plaque of cloudborne putti representing the arts. The flanking drawers with gilt-bronze acanthus cast handles and fruiting cornucopia...

A Large Napoleon III Carved Giltwood & Gesso Mirror. Grand in size and decoration, this impressive Napoleon III period overmantel mirror is designed in the Louis XVI style with an ...

A Pair of Gilt-Bronze and Ruby Glass Table Lamps. Each with hexagonal stem and tulip-shaped Bohemian glass base. The metalwork finely turned with crosshatched patterns in gilt-bron...

A Fine and Rare Louis XV Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Marquetry Occasional Table. By Emmanuel Alfred (dit Alfred II) Beurdeley. Paris. France, Circa 1885. The top with marquetry of precious fruitwoods and rare timbers depicting a central cartouche of two monkeys standing in a classical landscape, dressed as men playing a drum and a tambourine. The surrounding marquetry composed of rocaille framed trellis parquetry panels with musical attributes. The shaped top surrounded by a three-quarter gilt-bronze gallery. The top slides back and the drawer opens to reveal a writing tray. The serpentine sides with cartouches with flower-filled marquetry. On cabriole legs headed by gilt-bronze rocaille clasps. Beautifully rendered by Beurdeley this ‘table Singeries’ is ennobled with the fullest frivolity of the rococo. The marquetry scene on the top derives from engravings published in Paris in the mid-eighteenth century entitled ‘Le Tambour de Basque’ and 'Le Tambourin’ by J. Guelard after designs by Christophe Huet (died 1759) from a series entitled ‘Singeries ou Différentes Actions de la Vie Humaine Representées par des Singes’. The present writing table is almost identical to an 18th century table in the James A. de Rothschild collection at Waddesdon Manor (inv. 3472) which was purchased by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild at the legendary auction of Prince Demidov’s Florentine Palazzo San Donato in 1880 (Lot 1554 — Très jolie table...

A Louis XIV Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Mahogany Bureau Plat, By Cueunières, Paris. After the Model by Charles Cressent. Stamped to underside 'L. CUEUNIERES JNE / ÉBÉNISTE' The orig...

A Pair of Louis XIV Style Gilt-Bronze Twin-Light Wall-Appliques Modelled With Cherubic Herms. In the Manner of André-Charles Boulle. Each modelled as a cherubic herm holding aloft a...

A Pair of Louis XIV Style Gilt-Bronze Twin-Light Wall-Appliques. In the Manner of André-Charles Boulle. Each modelled as a cherubic herm holding aloft spiral branches. Wired for el...

A Fine Patinated Bronze Group, Entitled 'Thesée Combattant le Centaure Bianor' ('Theseus Fighting the Centaur Bianor'), Cast by Ferdinand Barbedienne, From the Model By Antoine Louis...

A Fine Gilt-Bronze Mounted Marquetry Commode, By Heinrich Pallenberg, Cologne. The original marble top is a rare yellow, black and grey brèche marble. This magnificent chest of dra...

A Pair of Louis XV Style Gilt-Bronze Eight-Light Candelabra, Attributed to Victor Paillard. Each exuberantly modelled in the high rococo style with pl...

A Fine Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Mahogany And Lacquer Commode à Vantaux After The Model by Weisweiler, by Hubert-Joseph Heubès. The carcass stamped 'HEUBES' and bearing ...

A Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Mahogany Centre Table. The table with a Villefranche de Conflent marble top of soft purple patterning against a white ground. Beneath the marbl...

A Large Patinated Bronze Sculpture of Emperor Napoleon on Horseback, Cast by Susse Frères, Paris, From the Model By Alfred Émilien O'Hara, Comte de Nieuwerkerke (1811-1892). Dark br...

An Orientalist Lifesize Figural Bronze Statue, Attributed to Louis Hottot (French, 1834-1906). Modelled as a lady in Ottoman dress standing beneath an Eastern style pagoda with minaret. Depicting as if answering a call and stepping forward in greeting. France, Circa 1890. This impressive figural group is a rare work in bronze attributed to the Orientalist sculptor Louis Hottot whose oeuvre is more readily associated with what was called ‘bronze imitation’, referring to sculpture in white-metal or, as it is known today, spelter. That this large statue is cast from superior and costly bronze is indicative of its rarity and importance. The Orientalist subject relates to paintings by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904), Ludwig Deutsch (1855–1935) Gustav Bauernfeind...

A Pair of Louis XVI Style Carved Giltwood Mirrors. Each mirror with an arched mirror plate and corresponding frame carved with still leaf decoration and an arched pediment centred ...

A Fine Louis XV Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Bois Satiné and Lacquered Tray-Top Table, by Henry Dasson. This elegant table is inset to the top with a lacquered tray decorated with a s...

A Louis XVI Style Porcelain Mounted Gueridon. The oval top with a pierced gallery centred by an inset Sèvres-style porcelain plaque painted ...

A Pair of Large Gilt-Bronze Mounted Sèvres-Style Cobalt Blue Ground Porcelain Vases and Covers. Signed 'H. Desprez'. Each of baluster form. One painted to the front with Louis XV a...

Antoine-Louis Barye (French, 1795-1875) 'Lion marchant' bronze with dark brown patina signed 'BARYE' on the base and with the foundry mark 'HB / C' to underside for Maison H. Brame. France, Circa 1880. Antoine-Louis Barye’s remarkably lifelike depictions of wild animals made him the most famous animal sculptor of the nineteenth century and he is credited with making small animal bronzes cast in bronze a recognised genre. Such artists became known as ‘animaliers’. Given the associations with power and strength it is befitting that Barye cemented his reputation with his depeiction of ‘Un lion assis...

A Fine White Marble Figure of a Kneeling Cherub, By Pio Fedi. Signed to the base 'Pio Fedi Faceva'. Italian, Circa 1860. Pio Fedi (1815-1892) was an Italia...

A Regence Style Gilt-Bronze and Boulle Marquetry Inlaid Grand Cartel de Applique, In the Manner of André-Charles Boulle. The eight-day twin-train movement, striking on a bell. The dial with a porcelain cartouche inscribed ‘Thuret a Paris’. The movement stamped Etienne Maxant and ‘12775: 8.1 EM’. This impressive and large cartel clock has a circular, arabesque chased, brass dial with Roman numerals on enamelled cartouches, with engraved Arabic seconds and polished steel hands. The dial sits within a waisted case, with large acanthus mounted gilt-bronze volutes...

A Pair of Large Gilt-Bronze Mounted Chinese Celadon-Ground and Slip Decorated Porcelain Vases. These vases of Chinese celadon porcelain from the ...

A Pair of Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze Three-Light Wall-Appliques. Each with tapering backplate in the shape of an arrow quiver and surmounted by an urn. Issuing three 'S'-scrolled ...

A Large Pair of Parcel-Gilt and Grey Painted Pedestals. Each pedestal is of square tapering section inset with an Escalette Alpha rose marble top and carved overall with scrollwork,...

A Patinated Bronze Figural Group of ‘Gloria Victis’ (‘Glory to the Vanquished’), Cast by Ferdinand Barbedienne from the Model by Marius-Jean-Antonin Mercié (French, 1845-1916). ‘Gloria Victis’ (‘Glory to the Vanquished’). Bronze, gilt and dark brown patina. Signed 'A. Mercié', with foundry inscription 'F. BARBEDIENNE, Fondeur. Paris.' and A. Collas reduction cachet. The integral base titled 'GLORIA VICTIS'. This cast is part of a limited edition by the Barbedienne Foundry. France. Circa 1880. ‘Gloria Victis’ is one of the most recognisable and important works of sculpture of the nineteenth century and a definitive image of France’s historic national identity. The figure of glory, winged and wearing armour, carries a dying young warrior heavenwards towards fame and immortality. The compositional daring of the group must be admired for balancing two figures on the minimal support of one foot, wings spread in the moment before taking flight. Mercié was a student at the French Academy of Rome when the Prussians invaded France in 1870. Shortly after the war had begun, he executed a group depicting the figure of Fame supporting a victorious soldier. When news reached Mercié in Rome that the French had surrendered, he decided to alter his group, replacing the victorious soldier with a defeated casualty, thus transforming an allegory of ‘Glory to the Victors’ into one of ‘Glory to the Vanquished’. Completed in 1872, a year after the defeat of French soldiers against the Prussian army, the statue personifies a defeated but heroic France. The title is also a reversal of the famous formula, ‘Vae Victis’ (Death to the Vanquished), which the Gallic general Brennus exclaimed upon defeating the Romans in 390 BC. The figure of the fallen soldier was thought to represent Henri Regnault, a fellow sculptor of Mercié who was killed on the last day of fighting. Measuring 317 cm. high the original group of ‘Gloria Victis’ was unveiled in plaster at the Salon of 1872. It was bought by the City of Paris for the sum of twelve thousand francs and then cast in bronze by Victor Thiébaut for eight thousand five hundred francs. The bronze was exhibited at the Salon in 1875 and first placed in Montholon Square in the 8th arrondissement. In 1884 it was transferred to the courtyard of the Hôtel de Ville and in 1930, it entered the collection of the Musée du Petit Palais, where it can be seen to this day. The Thiébaut Frères foundry also cast Gloria Victis bronzes for the cities of Niort (requested 1881) Bordeaux (requested 1883), Châlons-sur-Marne (today, Châlons-en-Champagne; requested 1890), and Cholet (requested 1901). In 1905, the Danish brewer and art collector Carl Jacobsen was permitted to have an exact cast made of the original sculpture in Paris, on condition that the base was made 2 cm lower and bore the inscription “Original tilhører Paris By” (The original belongs to the City of Paris). It too was cast by the Thiébaut Frères foundry. Gloria Victis was one of Jacobsen’s most important and his last acquisition. Today it has been returned to its original position in the Winter Garden at Glyptoteket, Copenhagen, Denmark. The full-size plaster was shown again at the Paris Expositon universelle of 1878 alongside a bronze reduction by Barbedienne. By this time Antonin Mercié had entered into a commercial edition contract with the Ferdinand Babedienne foundry to produce bronze reductions of Gloria Victis, his most famous work. Gloria Victis is first recorded to have been produced in three sizes and by 1886 Barbedienne’s ‘Catalogue des Bronzes D’Art’ lists six sizes measuring 3/5, 9/20, 7/20, 3/10, 6/25 and 2/10, of the original. These reductions were produced by an invention of Barbedienne’s business partner Achille Collas. The Collas reducing machine was a type of complex mechanical pantograph lathe that enabled sculpture to be mathematically measured and transcribed to scale, in the round, thus making a reduced size plaster from which a bronze could be cast. Mercié's modern sculpture had become an instant classic, even receiving an entry in the Nouveau Larousse Illustré. The success of the group undoubtedly lay in the fact that it was admired not just on an aesthetic level, but also on a patriotic level, particularly in its commemoration of heroism in defeat. Immediately ‘Gloria Victis’ was recognised as a national artwork, capable of arousing patriotism and casts were ordered from Barbedienne as local memorials commemorating the war’s dead for cities across France. ‘Gloria Victis’ was considered so much a part of France’s national identity that for the 1900 Paris Exhibition, Ferdinand Barbedienne’s nephew Gustave Leblanc, loaned a bronze example to feature as part of l’Exposition centennale de l’art français. Literature: For an interesting account of the process of creating a reduction in bronze of the Gloria Victis by Barbedienne and illustrations of the casting and finishing of the bronze see: 'Ferdinand Barbedienne': Theodore Child; Harper's new monthly magazine, Volume 73, Issue 436, September 1886. ‘Contemporary French Sculptors’: The Century, Volume 33, Issue 3, Jan 1887. ‘Modern French Sculpture’: Harper's new monthly magazine, Volume 76, Issue 452, January 1888. S, Lami, ‘Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'Ecole française au dix-neuvième siècle’, Tome III. G.-M., Paris, 1914, p. 432. Peter Fusco and H.W. Janson, The Romantics to Rodin: French Nineteenth Century Sculpture from North...

A Louis XV Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Vernis Martin Vitrine Cabinet. The spreading pediment centred by a rocaille clasp and flanked by exotic busts. The central three-quarter glazed ...

A Pair of Large Gilt-Bronze Mounted Chinese Celadon-Ground and Slip Decorated Porcelain Vases. These vases of Chinese celadon porcelain from the late Quing Dynasty are slip-decorated with willow trees and prunus flowers. The finely sculpted gilt-bronze handles are modelled as winged merman term figures running on berried scrolled clasps to a rocaille raised foot. These superb vases are in the tradition for mounting Chinese porcelain with gilt-bronze accoutrements made by ciseleur-doreurs such as Pierre Gouthière for the marchand-merciers, namely Dominique Daguerre and Simon-Philippe Poirier. The practice continued into the nineteenth century when Prince Regent, later George IV (1762-1830), sent Chinese porcelain vases from the Royal...

A Fine Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Marble Top Mahogany Three-Tier Console Desserte. The moulded ‘D’ – shaped veined white marble top above a gilt-bronze viruvian scroll and acanthus mounted frieze with a central fitted drawer, on fluted columns headed...

A Large Louis-Philippe Gilt-Bronze Charger. Of finely cast and chased gilt-bronze with matte and burnished gilding. The dished central basin cast in relief with Neptune driving a c...

A Fine and Unusual Pair of Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze Low Side Tables With Sèvres-Style Porcelain Tops. Each table has a fine Sèvres-style porc...

A Fine Louis XVI Style Patinated and Gilt-Bronze Mounted Centre Table After The Fontainebleau Model with a Verde Patricia Marble Top, by Zwiener Jansen Successeur. The bronze mounts...

A Twenty-Four Light Crystal Glass Chandelier, By La Compagnie des Cristalleries de Baccarat. The trumpet-shaped corona issuing cane-shaped branches hung with tulip bells. Above a ho...

A Large Pair of Vienna Style Porcelain Vases and Covers. Each of tapering baluster shape decorated with gilt flowers and anthemion against a claret and ivy green ground. The front w...

A Pair of Large Napoleon III Gilt-Bronze Nine-Light Candelabra, Emblematic of Hunting. Each conceived in the Louis XV style with rocaille stem supporting assymetrically modelled sc...

A Gilt-Bronze Marquetry Inlaid Occasional Table, Attributed to Emmanuel Zwiener. The reverse of the gilt-bronze sabot incised 'Z' This exquisite table is perfect for a living room ...

A Gilt-Bronze Mounted Burr Walnut Writing Table, Probably by Gillows. The rectangular top has a gilt-bronze surround above a serpentine frieze fronted by a central drawer. The corn...

A Louis XV Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Mahogany and Parquetry Occasional Table. The Sarrancolin marble top within a gilt-bronze surround. The frieze is decorated with superb parquetry...

A Pair of Venetian Rococo Carved Giltwood Mirrors. These mirrors have elaborate pierced strapwork crestings surmounted by a shell-shaped corona above a cartouche-shaped plate, the...

A Rare and Exceptional Gilt and Patinated Bronze Monumental Cercles Tournants Clock Garniture, by Deniere, Paris. The backplate signed 'DENIERE...

A Pair of Louis XV Style Gilt-Bornze Six-Light Candelabra by Robert Frères, Cast by Susse Frères. Signed to the base ‘Robert Frères, à Paris’ and with the cachet stamp for ‘Editeur ...

A Pair of Oval Bronze Reliefs After Clodion. Each inscribed to the cast Clodion. Each plaque depicts a Bacchic scene of a maiden dancing with a young s...

An Art Nouveau Gilt-Bronze Vase Depicting a Naiad, After Auguste Moreau, Now Mounted as a Lamp. Signed to the body 'Aug Moreau'. French, Circa 1900. Louis Auguste Moreau (1855 -...

A Rare Pair of Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Vitrine Tables In The Manner of Weisweiler, by Georges-François Alix. This rare pair of mahogany vitrine tables each have a hinged...

A Fine Pair of Louis XVI Style Giltwood Marginal Frame Mirrors. This fine pair of carved giltwood and geso mirrors each have an oval bevelled mirror plate framed by four mirrored s...

A Large And Rare Pair of ‘Neo-Grec’ Style Multipatinated Bronze Amphora Vases by Ferdinand Levillain and Ferdinand Barbedienne. Signed to the cast ‘F. Levillain Fecit 1880’ and ‘F. Barbedienne’. This large pair of multipatinated vases are of amphora form modelled in the ‘Neo-Grec’ style with trumpet shaped necks and scrolling handles terminating in masks; the vases are raised on circular spreading bases put down on plinths. Each vase is finely ornamented with laurel leaves and garlands to the neck, the main body with a superb banded frieze cast in low relief depicting the Centauromachy. In the Centauromachy, the Lapiths battle with the Centaurs at the wedding feast of Pirithous. An enduring classical theme linked with the idea of culture versus nature, the Centauromachy was widely depicted in ancient Greece from the Southern Metopes of the Parthenon Freieze to the Temple of Apollo Epikourious at Bassai, it also appears as a subject on numerous Attic vases such as the Ilioupersis krater. A popular theme for artists from the Renaissance onwards it was depicted by amongst others, Michelangelo, Piero di Cosimo, Luca Signorelli, Sebastiano Ricci...

A Rare Belle Epoque Gilt-Bronze Mounted Parquetry Inlaid Grand Buffet, By François Linke, The Mounts Designed by Léon Messagé. Signed to the right corner clasp ‘Linke’ The enamel...

A Fine Pair of Louis XVI Style Gilt and Patinated Bronze Chenets Allegorical of Winter. Each chenet is formed as seated putto clad in drapery, on shaped gilt-bronze plinth bases wit...

A Fine Italian Carved Giltwood Low Centre Table with A Pietre Dure Marble Top. This impressive giltwood low table has a fine pietre dure inlaid marble top inset within a gadrooned b...

An Important Set of Four Large Porphyry Obelisks. Each obelisk is of square section tapering form with a spiked orb finial and embellished with carved roundels of the twelve Roman...

A Pair of Magnificent and Palatial Patinated Bronze Figural Putto Seven-Light Gilt-Bronze, Rock-Crystal and Amethyst Glass Candelabra, On Green Marble Pedestals. By Raingo Frères, ...

A Fine Pair of George III Style Carved Giltwood Mirrors. Each mirror has a rectangular bevelled mirror plate within a carved giltwood frame of acanthus and 'C'-scrolls, surmounted b...

'Una Gitana' A Large Berlin (KPM) Porcelain Plaque After Angelo Asti (1847-1903), depicting a portrait of a beautiful young woman in profile wearing a red cap. In an oval giltwood f...

An Impressive Goncalo Alves (tiger wood) and Mahogany Centre Table With a Specimen Marble Top. This fine table is of imposing size with the specimen top measuring almost 137 cm (55 ...

A Napoléon III Marble Mantle Clock With A Patinated Bronze Figure of 'Phryné' by James Pradier. France, Circa 1860. Surmounted by a finely cast pa...

Alfred Boucher (French, 1850-1934), ‘Diana the Huntress’, A Near Lifesize Statuary Marble Group. Modelled nude with head turned looking to her left, striding forward holding the greyhound by its collar with her right hand and a giltwood bow in her left hand. On an integral carved base with foliage support. Signed 'A. BOUCHER' Boucher’s choice of pose is deliberately indebted to the celebrated mid-16th century painting of Diana the Huntress by an anonymous artist of the School of Fontainebleau. The painting is a mythical representation of Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of King Henry II, in the guise of the goddess Diana, who is shown nude, walking forward beside a greyhound, looking over her left shoulder and holding a bow. Another clear antecedent for Boucher’s ‘Diane the Huntress...

A Roman Micromosaic Plaque Depicting a Basket of Flowers. Inscribed verso 'From The Townshend Colln.', 'Poe 200, Florentine Mosaic', 16.5 x 18 cm, the plaque 18.5 x 20 cm, overall...

A Pair of White Statuary Marble Garden Planters. Carved in carrara marble, each surmounted by a circular shallow basin with egg-and-dart carved rim. The underside carved with beadwo...

A Pair of Napoléon III Gilt-Bronze, Chinese Lacquer And Ebonised Side Cabinets By Charles-Guillaume Winckelsen, Paris. Signed 'Chles WINCKELSEN 21 Rue St Louis', Paris. Each ...

A Pair of Empire Style Gilt and Patinated Bronze and Rouge Griotte Marble Seven-Light Candelabra. These palatial sized candelabra date to the First Empire period. As becoming of ...