The Magazine Antiques

The furnishings of the living room are divided into three groupings: a seating area in the middle of the room and one at either end. The tables in the middle of the room display a collection of gold boxes and other objets de vertu that are a particular passion of the owners. There are a group of French boxes by Joseph Étienne Blerzy (m. 1768, active to 1808); a varied assortment of German hardstone boxes, including an agate horse's head mounted in diamonds, rubies, and emeralds from the former collection of Alexis de Rosenberg (1922-2004), baron de Redé;5 and some English boxes of the early nineteenth century, including a Freedom Box by Alexander James Strachan (see Fig. 13). There are also a few portrait miniatures-one an engaging likeness by the Russian court miniaturist Augustin Christian Ritt of a man in informal dress sitting in a rustic chair in a landscape that, from his gesture, must be his property (Fig. 15).

Some of the grandest objects in the room are assembled on a long gilded wood console (Fig. 17). A Japanese lacquer box occupies pride of place in the middle. It is mounted in sumptuous rococo gilt bronze and must have been transformed by a Parisian marchand mercier into a fashionable high luxury object about 1750. Its padded blue silk lining suggests it was once fitted for a precious object, such as a porcelain tea service. On either side of the box are two of the most impressive objects in the collection, a pair of framed marquetry pictures mounted with the gilt-bronze crest of Joachim Murat, the king of Naples from 1808 to 1815. The marquetry pictures are after paintings of Evening and Morning by Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789). They can be swiveled on their Egyptian style gilt-bronze mounts to reveal another pair of marquetry panels with scenes after the decoration on ancient vases, probably derived from prints of the famous Sir William Hamilton collection (Fig. 16). More recently these marquetry pictures were in the salon jaune at Beistegui's Château de Groussay.6

On the other side of the entrance to the room is a large Flemish cabinet of about 1670 attributed to Italian craftsmen (see Fig. 3). Veneered in red tortoiseshell, it has panels of painted marble on the drawer fronts, and on the inside it has a compartment lined with mirrors and hung with a silver chandelier like a miniature baroque theater. The living room also holds some pieces of miniature furniture, which the owners particularly favor. These include an Italian baroque gilded wood throne for the figure of the Christ child, a child's chair stamped by Claude Chevigny, and a neoclassical gilded wood child's chair from the collection of the princes de Ligne. The most extraordinary of these small pieces, although not strictly miniature, is a delicate rococo rafraichissoir fitted for two wine bottles at the top with a mirror-lined compartment in one side for the glasses (Fig. 2). Its small scale indicates that it was intended for intimate dining. The silvered decoration and the inventive carving of icicles spilling over the edge and at the knees suggest that it is probably German rather than French—possibly for the court of Frederick the Great at Berlin or Potsdam.

While the overall impression of these rooms is one of richness and variety in the European mode, it is the unusual setting that gives them their singular American character. At night, when the house is bathed in the subtlest of artificial light, when it is filled with orchids, and indeed when it is filled with guests, the collection really comes to life. Many museums and their curators could learn from such an example. 

1 See Château de Groussay, Sotheby's France and Poulain, Le Fur, Paris, June 2-6, 1999.  2 Luttrellstown Castle, Clonsilla, County Dublin..., Christie's, September 26-28, 1983, lot 255.  3 The Dodge Collection of Eighteenth-Century French and English Art in the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, 1996), p. 24. The decoration was by the New York and Paris firm of L. Alavoine and Company; much of the furniture was supplied by Duveen Brothers of New York.  4 Magnificent Clocks, Christie's, London, September 15, 2004, lot 16.  5 Meubles et objets d'art provenant de l'Hôtel Lambert et du Château de Ferrières, Sotheby's Monaco May 25-26, 1975, lot 23.  6 Château de Groussay, vol. 1, June 2, 1999, lot 281

MARTIN CHAPMAN is the curator of European decorative arts and sculpture at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

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