A FINE FRENCH INKSTAND IN LOUIS XVI TASTE

French, Circa 1800 -1810

Rectangular white statuary marble inkstand with elaborate gilt bronze mounts applied to the sides backed by red velvet. The surface has three ink containers with ormolu lids and a cut out valley for the pens, resting on ormolu turned bun feet. The ormolu frieze is considered by Pierre Verlet to have been the property of the Marchand Mercier Daguerre who was known to have employed Remond to make them.  Peter Hughes illustrates a work table in the Wallace Collection No. 218 as an example of the frieze used by Weisweiller.  Daguerre also used these mounts on a lacquer secretaire made for the King at Versailles in 1784 and also on a pair of secretaires and commode made for the King of Naples in 1790. The King of Naples then commissioned a lacquer roll top desk using the same mounts in 1792.  

The drawing is taken from an etching by Jacques Francois Joseph Saly (Valencienne 1717-1776) Paris.

Provenance:

Count Nikolai Sheremetev who built Ostankino, outside Moscow, between 1792-93 enlarged 1796 and 1798. He filled it with both Russian and French decorative pieces.

By descent to Count P V Shermetev who gave it as a gift in 1912

There is an identical inkstand but 1 cm smaller both in width and height at the

J. Paul Getty Museum illustration 187 in the Summary Catalogue of European Decorative Arts..

Bibliography:

Bremer-Davi, Summary, No. 181, p 109, illus.