Ancient Fabrics and Costumes - Le Manach Auction III

TEXTILES ANCIENS - LE MANACH III

from the Manufacture LE MANACH (*) collection
of ancient fabrics and wallpapers, and others

Thierry de Maigret - Drouot Richelieu (Paris)
February 04, 2011 - 2pm

(click on the picture to access the site, have a look at the wonders,
download the PDF catalogue, etc.)

***

(*) - Le Manach was founded in the city of Tours in 1829 and is still active. It's the heir of long tradition of silk industry, which started in 1470, when king Louis XI decided to establish a French production of silk to avoid imports from Italy. Tours was the other French silk city, even if now Lyon is more famous.

Splendour of Table and Décor at Versailles

The restoration of the magnificent room called the 'Antichambre du Grand Couvert', in the Palace of Versailles, has just been completed. It was the place where king Louis XIV and his family used to have diner, at night (10 pm), in public - a ceremonial repast which was called 'au Grand Couvert'.

This book, a French English bilingual edition, put the focus on the "Grand Couvert", describing its organization and decrypting its rituals and codes.

---

Nicolas Milovanovic
L'Antichambre du Grand Couvert : Fastes de la table et du décor à Versailles,
Gourcuff Gradenigo - Livres d'art LG, 2010, 120 p.

Fan Paintings - Château de Versailles (ca. 1675)

Versailles - View of the Chateau as seen from the Place d'Armes

***

Versailles - View of the Chateau seen from the garden

Those amazing gouaches will be put up for auction in Paris, Drouot, on April 16, 2010.
The auctioneer is Ferri & Associés.

---
Fan Painting - Lot n°39
Gouache and gold
22,4 cmx 42,8 cm
Estimate € 10 000 - 12 000

---

UPDATE - Those priceless paintings reached an unexpected high price : € 240 000 !

The Hours of the Day, Musée Magnin, Dijon

Through paintings, documents, objects and pieces of furniture, the exhibition describes the daily life of a high-society family from the late 17th century to the late 19th century. It introduces the routines and habits and shows their evolution through the time.

Testifying on the importance of music, a "table à sextuor" (sextet table) designed by Pierre II Migeon.

---

Les Heures du jour - Dans l'intimité d'une famille de la haute société, de Louis XIV à la IIIe République

Musée National Magnin, Dijon (France)

Nov 19 2009 - February 14 2010

Musée Magnin

Saint-Cyr Fan

(click for larger image)

This fan was auctioned a few months ago in Paris and went for €6000.
It was painted by the pupils of Saint-Cyr and given to madame de Maintenon in occasion of her name day on April 2 1699.

Saint-Cyr, or 'Maison Royale de Saint Louis', was a convent school founded by Madame de Maintenon to educate impoverished girls of noble lineage.
The age for the admission was 7 to 12. At the age of 20, the girls were given a certificate and a dowry and helped finding a decent position.
The painting shows scenes of the daily life in Saint-Cyr. Pictures of Saint-Cyr being rare, this fan is a very precious document.

Here is another interesting piece related to Saint-Cyr. It's the description and transcription (in english) of a french manuscript titled Proof of Nobility for Elizabeth Mérée d'Anqueville required for admittance to St.-Cyr.

Cygnus Musicus

Swans and a sistrum,
A beautiful wallpaper by Jacquemart (1803)

Since Antiquity the swan is associated with music. It is connected to Apollo, the Great God of Music, and an attribute of Erato, the Muse presiding over Love Poetry, Hymns and Wedding songs.

Swans play en important part in the birth of Apollo. The Greek mythology tells that when Apollo was born, sacred swans came and fled over the island of Delos seven times. Then, they took the baby to Hyperborea, the region ruled by Boreas, the God of the North Wind, where the baby stayed one year. Hellenes used to believe that Apollo was spending every Winter in Hyperborea.(***)

Another myth, still related to Apollo, connects the swan to music and singing : the myth of Kyknos, King of Liguria and friend to Phaeton. While he lamented his friend's tragic death, Apollo gave Kyknos a melodious voice and metamorphosed him into a swan.

The link between swan and music has certainly much to do with the North swan called cygnus musicus or ferus, because of his whistling ressembling the sound of a violin. This peculiar sound probably gave origin to the ancient belief that the mute swan (cygnus olor or mansuetus) is completely mute during its lifetime but sings beautifully just before he dies.

Sistrum is a percussion instrument merely associated with ancient Egypt. We find it used during all the ancien regime to symbolise music. At the same time simple, easy to recognise and meaningful, the sistrum had obvious decorative qualities, which may explain it became one of the recurring symbols in the neo-classic decorative arts.

----
(***)Rameau's last opera, Les Boréades (1763-64), was based on the myth connecting Apollo to Boreas.
Plot : the tradition, for the queens of Bactria, is to marry descendants of Boreas, but Alphise is in love with Abaris, a man of unknown descent, brought up by Adamas, the high priest of Apollo... The whole opera shows the struggle between the 'Boréades', descendants of Boreas, Calisis and Borileas, the two suitors competing to be chosen by Alphise and to impose their right and the tradition upon her, and the resistance of Alphise and Abaris struggling for their love...
It was, long before Mozart's Enchanted Flute, a masonic opera about the fight between light and darkness, close, in the themes and in its approach, to Rameau's previous opera, Zoroastre (1756).

Fashion in Detail

Good piece of news ! They reissued Fashion in Detail, a wonderful book on the 17th & 18th-century costumes which gives the opportunity to have a close-up look at the details of several historical costumes from the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The pictures are beautiful and completed by very informative explanations on the techniques, fabrics and fashion of the time.
It's an amazing journey into the past, and a great resource for anyone interested in fashion, historical costumes or decorative arts and crafts.

Avril Hart and Susan North
Seventeenth and Eighteenth-century Fashion in Detail
V&A Publishing, 2009, 223p.

---
First published by V&A publications, 1998, as Historical Fashion in detail from the 17th and 18th Centuries.
First published in North America by Rizzoli International Publications Inc., 1998, as Fashion in Detail from the 17th and 18th Centuries.

Portraits of Louis XIV & the Royal Family

Louis XIV at various ages

Found on Gallica, an artwork by Antoine Benoist (1632-1717), showing Louis XIV at the age of 5, 10, 16, 22, 28, 34, 40, 46, 54 & 59.

The Royal Family

Louis XIV (at the age of 64) ; Louis, dauphin (23) ; Maria Anna of Bavaria, Dauphine (24) ; Louis, duc de Bourgogne (22) ; Marie Adélaïde, duchesse de Bourgogne (19) ; Philippe, duc d'Anjou (19) ; Charles duc de Berry (18) ; Louis XIII (15?) ; Maria Teresa of Austria (22?) ; Anna of Austria (63).

---

Gallica dated the works from the years 1690.

Let's celebrate Spring...

Simon, 1799

....with that floral wallpaper I found on Gallica.
They have an interesting collection from the years 1799 to 1802