Estimate

800 - 1.100

Session 2

16 November 2021

Hammer Price

Description

French silver
Baluster shaped of finely chiselled decoration. A component from a larger travel case
Paris, 18th century, marked Louis-Joseph MILLERAUD-BOUTY and 18th c. marks

Two very similar models in Queen MARIE-ANTOINETTE necessaire, as well as in the set ordered by the Queen in 1791, as a gift to her sister MARIE-CHRISTINE, but intended to be carried with the Royal Family's luggage during the planned flight from Paris.

17,0 x 8,0 cm
255 g

Category

Silver

Additional Information

Louis-Joseph BOUTY, known as MILLERAUD-BOUTY, was born in 1733. He became master in Paris on 23 January 1779 endorsed by the goldsmith Nicolas CHEVALLIER. He worked until 1810.

Museums and Public Institutions
Metropolitan Museum, New York – Sugar bowl with cover, sterling silver, Paris 1785-1787, inv. 48.187.71a, b
Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris, Petit Palais – Plateau, sterling silver, Paris 1781-1782, inv. ODUT1467(C)
Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris, Petit Palais – Sugar bowl with cover sterling silver, Paris 1785-1786, inv. ODUT1467(A-B)
• Candé church - Cruet stand, sterling silver, Paris 1787, classified as Monument on January 25, 1977

In 1791 King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette were forced to leave Versailles and taken, under arrest, to the Tuileries in Paris. Because of threats to their lives, the royal family felt they must escape. The Queen wants to take her "necessaire", one of her favourite items. Through her first attendant, Madame Campan, she commissioned, in April 1791, an identical set on the pretext of making it a gift to her sister Archduchess Marie-Christine, Governor of the Netherlands. Due to the delays in the set's delivery, the queen sent her own kit to Brussels, a shipment discussed many times in her correspondence with the diplomat Mercy-Argenteau. This will result in a denunciation from his maid, suspecting that he was planning and assisting the Tuileries fleeing: "we thought she would not guess the reason for sending the necessaire of the Queen in Brussels, but […] the announcement of a present made by Her Majesty to her sister was only a pretext ”.

Musée Internationale de la Parfumeries, Grasse, "Aiguière", in PALMA Jean-Philippe, cabinetmaker ; CHARPENAT Jean-Pierre, goldsmith ; HÉNIN & Cie, goldsmith ; TAFFOIREAU H., goldsmith ; Manufacture d'Outrequin de Montarcy – "Coffret, nécessaire" – Paris, 1791-early 20th century.
This necessaire was for a time exposed at Marie-Antoinette's apartments at the Château de Versailles
Musée du Louvre, Paris, "Aiguière", in JOUBERT François, goldsmith ; CHARPENAT Jean-Pierre, goldsmith ; LETHIEN, knifemaker ; PALMA Jean-Philippe, cabinetmaker – Marie-Antoinette's travel kit – Paris, 1787-1788.

Bibliography:
• Madame Campan, Mémoires de Madame Campan, première femme de chambre de Marie-Antoinette, 1988.
• Marie-Antoinette ; Seth, Catriona, edition presented by, Lettres inédites, Albin Michel, 2019