Louis XVI Collectibles and Curiosities

The Antiquities of Herculaneum with their explanations in French. Published, Paris, 1781-1803. This profusely illustrated set consists of 12 volumes retaining their original marbled ...

An important gilt-bronze mounted parquetry inlaid piano a queue, by François Linke, the Movement by Erard.  Signed 'F.Linke' on the keyboard cover mold...

A fine Louis XVI style gilt-bronze mounted baby grand Piano by Gaveau à Paris. Serial number 67874. This fine baby grand piano has a quarter-veneered top with a stiff leaf cas...

French Louis XVI (18th Century) barometer with original scientific illustrations and mercury vial framed with gilt foliate carvings & ebonized ...

A very rare Louis XVI period serinette or bird organ in the form of a transitional style gilt bronze mounted and marquetry inlaid miniature commode in the manner of gilbert, by Robert Richard, Paris. With a label for ' RICHARD - maitre facteur d’orgues et mécanicien / Rue de richelieu à la bibliothèque Du Roy / Paris 1775'. This rare Serinette or Bird Organ has a wooden cylinder barrel mounted by twelve pins and linked to twelve sound pipes. A crank attached to the front panel controls the bellows that activates the mechanism. The exceptional marquetry inlaid case is in the form of a gilt bronze mounted transitional style miniature commode. The top of the commode is inlaid with a landscape scene with buildings, opening to an interior with an allegory of Love Conquering All, represented by two doves perching on a bow and quiver. The front of the commode depicts two obelisks centred by a Fine musical trophy and each side is inlaid with panels depicting the Medici Vase. The back of the commode is decorated with floral marquetry. A closely related Serinette dating from circa 1770, also in the form of a miniature commode, with the marquetry case stamped by the master marqueteur Leonard Boudin, is in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. The term serinette is derived from serine, French for finch. The instrument worked like a small barrel organ with a barbed cylinder, wind box and lead pipes and produced a high, thin sound in imitation of birds. Other versions included a merline, which copied blackbirds and a turlutaine, which copied curlews. Used to teach caged birds to sing tunes, different barrels could be inserted to train different birds. It first appeared in France circa 1730 and became a popular drawing-room toy for fashionable women. An interesting painting commissioned in 1751 for Louis XV by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin and now in the collection of the Louvre, depicts a refined lady seated in her salon playing a bird organ to encourage her bird to sing. Robert Richard Robert Richard was a Parisian organ and harpsichord maker and the mécanicien du roi to Louis XV and Louis XVI and was based in the Bibliothèque du Roi in rue de Richelieu. Initially working alongside the Cliquot family who acted as 'facteur d'orgue du Roi', he is recorded as building an organ for the church of Notre-Dame de Quebec, in Montreal in 1753 (destroyed in 1759) and as the inventor of a mechanical concert shown in an engraving by d'Eisen in 1769. Canon Jean Marie De La Corne described Robert Richard as : ''Le plus habile ouvrier de paris, fameux mechanitien et Homme de probité''. French, Dated 1775. Literature: Pierre Kjellberg, The French Furniture of the 17th century, The Editions of the Amateur, 2008 Count Francois de Salverte, Cabinetmakers of the 18th century, Editions of Art and History, 1934 Raymond Russell, Victoria and Albert Museum Catalogue of Musical Instruments, Volume I - Keyboard Instruments,(London, 1968; p. 69.) Elizabeth Miller...

Pair of French Louis XVI-style (Mid-19th Century) ormolu wall clock and barometer set each of banjo form with Apollo mask above putti and circular dial over bearded mask (Signed RAIN...

Rare neoclassical style French giltwood clock and barometer set French, 19th century Measures: Height 90cm, width 38cm, depth 12cm This du...

Manufactured in the Louis XVI style, both clock and barometer are encased within an ormolu case and flanked on either side by trumpet wielding cherubs, each surmounted with a patinated bronze sphere that is topped with a crown, the bases terminating in a pine cone finial. The barometer face signed 'E. Mottheau Paris', the clock movement signed 'LEMERLE CHARPENTIER' and 'LESIEUR'. This beautiful antique French clock and barometer...