Offered by Franck Baptiste Paris
REQUEST INFORMATION
Rare lantern in finely chased and gilded bronze with four lights.
The cylindrical body is composed of four curved glasses, one of which is embedded in the
door ; It offers a decoration of friezes with pearls and pompoms sited atop by tassels of oak.
The upper part is decorated by a canopy with charms and bells that imitates the roofs of
Chinese pagodas. The whole is topped by a superb original blown glass smoke screen.
Good condition, beautiful original gilding.
Parisian work, beginning of the Louis XVI period, around 1775-1780.
Dimensions :
Height : 77 cm ; Diameter : 33 cm
Our view :
Our lantern is a rare testimony to the taste for chinoiseries that persisted in Paris in the late
18th century.
The « pagoda » model is particulary rare and we know that some examples were even used to
light the buildings of the Crown under the Ancien Régime. Indeed, we know the history of a
similar model which is today preserved in the castle of Fontainebleau under the inventory
number F304.
Present in the store of the Garde Meuble, it was affected the 17 Germinal year V (April 6,
1797) to the Palace of the Management Board, to enlight Director Letourneur’s office.
Its history is known to us since that date thanks to the numbers affixed during the
Fontainebleau inventories in the 19th century, but we do not know for whom it was originally
delivered, before returning to the Garde Meuble. It is very likely that it was returned from a
crown castle seized as national property during the Revolution, before being reassigned like
many utilitarian pieces to the new authorities of the Management Board.
The absence of an inventory mark under the Ancien Régime on this type of piece does not
allow us to locate it with precision but it is possible to imagine its context to delivery for a
« Chinese room » of a castle, such as a living room, a cabinet or a pagoda…
Bibliography :
Jean-Pierre Samoyault, « Pendules et bronzes d’ameublement entrés sous le Premier Empire
», National Museum of Fontainebleau.
