Royal engravings by Marie Louise Adélaïde Boizot

Researching the portrait busts of Louis XVI, I fell in love with the gorgeous engravings of the royal family by Marie-Louise-Adélaïde Boizot (1744-1800).  These portraits are described as after drawings by her brother Louis-Simon Boizot;  they compare readily with his designs for Sèvres porcelain medallions: see particularly, the original drawing below from the Musée National de la Coopération Franco-Américaine in Blérancourt.   There is little majestic about these images, but a great deal of comfortable opulence; notice the luxuriance not only of the women's hairstyles, but also of the men's casually beribboned ponytails. They seem a Sèvres dream made flesh.

Simon-Louis Boizot, Medallion of Louis XVI, c.1774
The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.
https://art.thewalters.org/detail/4739/medallion-of-louis-xvi/

Simon-Louis Boizot, Design for a portrait medallion of Louis XVI.
 Black crayon and white chalk on chamois paper,  32cm x 30.5 cm
Blérancourt, Musée National de la Coopération Franco-Américaine. Formerly in the Rothschild collection  https://www.pop.culture.gouv.fr/notice/joconde/000DE025503

Female engravers were unusual, but by no means unknown in 18th-century France.  Marie-Louise-Adélaïde was from an artistic dynasty, the second of seven children born to the painter Antoine Boizot (1702-1782) and his second wife Jeanne Flottes (His first wife Marie, who died in 1739, had been the daughter of the painter Jean-Baptiste Oudry).  Marie-Louise-Adélaïde was taught drawing by her father and engraving by Jean-Jacques Flipart, who sold her prints from his premises in the rue de  l'Enfer.  She produced engravings after a number of artists in addition to her brother, including a few other portraits and several  fine, but mawkish, images of children taken from paintings by Greuze and Drouais. Only one - seemingly random - print, a portrait of the curé of Saint-Benoît, Jean Joseph Guillaume Bruté (d.1762), is attributed to her as the author of the original drawing as well as the engraver.

More Royal memorabilia under the hammer

OSENAT, "Royauté à Versailles", Saturday 23rd November 2019, Versailles, Hôtel des ventes du Château
CATALOGUE and BROCHURE
https://www.osenat.com/catalogue/100226?

Dominique Bonnet, "Un os et une mèche de cheveux de Louis XVI en vente à Versailles", Paris Match, 21.11.2019
https://www.parismatch.com/Royal-Blog/royaute-francaise/Un-petit-os-et-une-meche-de-cheveux-de-Louis-XVI-en-vente-a-Versailles-1660274


Here is yet another auction of royal/18th-century memorabilia, which takes place today (23rd November) at the new Versailles premises of the auction house Osenat. 

Jewels of Marie-Antoinette.....in SW19?

Southside House on the edge of Wimbledon Common boasts, among other curios, a string of pearls said to have been worn by Marie-Antoinette on the day of her execution. The pearls were presented to the owner of the house, John Pennington, by  the Empress Josephine. They were a reward for the help that he had given to fleeing émigrés when he was a young official at the British Embassy in Paris. The necklace is presumed to have been a gift to Josephine from Paul Barras. Napoleon, it was said, could not bear the presence of so tragic a momento. The pearls were apparently happily worn by John Pennington's wife. Only a single string remains since the rest of the gems were doled out  by the unhappy French queen as bribes to her gaoler.

A bit of a tall story? Well, let's say more of a family legend...

Marie-Antoinette's jewellery

A forthcoming auction of Royal jewels

This November sees the sale by Sotheby's in Geneva of the fabulous  Bourbon-Parma collection of royal jewellery, which is set to fetch a cool $5 million. Among the treasures are several pieces which belonged to Marie-Antoinette. The most spectacular is an enormous pearl (26 mm x 18m) on a diamont pendant, estimated to be worth $1-2 million.  There is also a necklace with more than 300 natural pearls ($200,000-$300,0000) and a pair of pearl drop earrings  ($30,000-$50,000). A diamond parure made for Louise of France, grand-daughter of Charles X, contains five gems which also once belonged to Marie-Antoinette.

The Manuscript of Cléry's Journal is auctioned

On 19th October this year, the manuscript was auctioned of Cléry's famous journal of the last days of the French royal family. It was one of over 600 lots in the collection of Lucian and André Tissot-Dupont (of the pens and lighters) sold  by Piasa in Paris. The manuscript represents Cléry's personal copy which served as the basis for the first printed edition of 1798.  It comprises 144 pages bound into six booklets and is a fair copy in the hand of a secretary, but with numerous autograph additions and corrections.   Cléry's family, who owned the manuscript until 1898, considered  that it may in fact have been entirely transcribed by Cléry himself. (According to P. Le Verdier, the original was a "manuscrit brouillon" consisting only of fragmentary notes).

The manuscript has several interesting annotations. There is a long note, dated November 1797,from the imperial censor who refused permission for the journal to be published in Vienna. Following this setback, Cléry journeyed to Blankembourg where on 21st January 1798 he presented the work to a visibly moved comte de Provence. Written on the title page in the future Louis XVIII's own hand, is the verse from the Aeneid which was later printed in the published work:

Animus meminisse horret - my spirit trembles with horror at the memory.

The sale also included the original copy of the first edition sent to Louis XVIII by Cléry, with his handwritten dedication.

The manuscript sold for €54,000 against an estimate of €30,000-€50,000 . The autographed book made €24,000.

Henri-Pierre Danloux, Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Cléry (1759-1809), valet de chambre of  Louis XVI
This drawing of 1798 was auctioned in Christie's sale of the Rothschild Collection Marie-Antoinette in November 2015.

Michèle Lorin, collector extraordinary!

Michèle Lorin : la passion de Marie-Antoinette (francetvinfo.fr)

Royal memorabilia from the Abbey St Louis-du-Temple Vauhallan

The Abbey of St Louis-du-Temple at Limon in the commune of Vauhallan near Meudon has a special connection with the last days of the French royal family.  The community of Benedictine nuns was founded in 1816 by a prominent member of the exiled royal family, Louise-Adélaïde de Bourbon-Condé, daughter of the prince de Condé, and was originally located in the Temple precinct.  

Louis XVI's cravat

Here is yet another item of royal clothing ...a scarf (foulard) worn by Louis XVI during his imprisonment in the Temple, auctioned on the anniversary of his death, 21st January, in 2004. The sale was handled by the Touraine auction house of Philippe Rouillac and took place in the relatively modest venue of the salle d'honneur of the town hall in Loche.  Interest was keen and rival telephone bids escalated the final sale price to a massive 70,000 €!  (The reserve was a mere 5,000 €)  The lucky buyers are said to have been an American family of French descent who made their purchase in order to draw attention to the part played by Louis XVI in bringing about American independence.  They wished to remain anonymous and  have done so pretty successfully - I certainly haven't managed to find any clues.

More relics of the Temple - Collection Beauchesne

I'm more of a robespierriste myself but relics of the royal family in their final days have a strange fascination.  Yet more memorabilia went under the hammer in March this year, when Drouot auctioned the collection of the Vicomte Alcide-Hyacinthe du Bois de Beauchesne (1804-1873), Gentleman of the Court of Louis XVIII, and author of the first systematic investigation into the fate of Louis XVII [Louis XVII, sa vie son agonie et sa mort: captivité de la famille royale au Temple, 1853].  An important part of the collection relating to  the royal family was bequeathed  by the widow of  Jean-Baptiste Gomin (1757-1841) who had been assistant to Laurent as guard of the children of France at the Temple between 8th November 1794 and 29th March 1795, and subsequently accompanied Madame Royal to Huningue in Basel in December 1795 to be handed over to the Austrians.

Marie-Antoinette's "bol-sein"

In August Kate Moss celebrated her 40th birthday in suitably newsworthy fashion with a champagne coupe modelled on her left breast, after the so-called bol-sein of the "fun-loving" Marie-Antoinette.

The 18th-century bol-sein referred to was not in fact a champagne glass but a milk cup, part of a service in porcelain commissioned from the designer Jean-Jacques Langrenée at the Manufacture Royale de Sèvres in 1787 for Marie-Antoinette's "pleasure dairy" at Rambouillet.  The service was "Etruscan" in style and the concept loosely based on Greek "mastos" cups.  A deep, milky white porcelain bowl was set in a footed stand in the shape of goat's heads, finished at the bottom with a mound of clay in the unmistakable shape of a human nipple. The emphasis is on natural fecundity rather than sexual titillation - and the effect is to say the least disturbing.

More expensive shoes - Sale of 16th/17th October 2012

Later in 2012, following the sale of the mules in the Paul Rousseau collection, this pair of Marie-Antoinette's shoes were offered at auction. They fetched a even more impressive 50,000 €  (though, as Time pointed out, this was some way short of the record for an item of clothing, which belongs to Marilyn Monroe's "Happy birthday Mr. President" dress which sold for $1,267,500 in 1999!) The buyer was undisclosed.  Perhaps there is a Russian tycoon out there with a lot of old (and very expensive) shoes!

Lot 20: A pair of green and pink silk slippers which belonged to Marie-Antoinette.

The shoes were given in 1775 by Marie Antoinette to Alexandre-Bernard Ju-des-Rets (1752-1837), an officer in her service at Versailles and were put on sale by one of his descendants.  They are similar in construction to the Toulon mules with wooden heels covered in white leather, but they are in even better condition. 

More royal memorabilia - the Collection Paul Rousseau

Here is another noteworthy auction - the sale of the collection of Paul Rousseau which took place in Toulon in March 2012.  It is hard to find out much about Paul Rousseau; presumably this is NOT the sports journalist by that name who died in the same year, 1941.  According to the auction notes he had notable contacts with collectors, men of letters and historians of the first half of the 20th century, notably Louis-Leon-Theodore Gosselin (1855), G Lenotre. It was Lenotre who contributed the most significant items to the collection, notably a pair of mules belonging to Marie-Antoinette (no.68), a writing exercise from the Dauphin Louis-Joseph (no.56) and a piece of material from the furnishings of the Temple (no.71). Other items originated from the collection of Bernard Franck (1848-1924).  On his death, Rousseau entrusted his collection to the Bordeaux lawyer Robert Dobin (1907-1997) whose family preserved it intact until 2012.

The two shirts of Louis XVI.....

Being executed is a little hard on the linen....

As previously posted, one of the items in the Collection Bancel sale of 2003 was the shirt/ nightshirt Louis XVI changed out of on the morning of his execution on 21st January 1793.

The evidence of provenance is straightforward. The shirt is accompanied by  a manuscript note,  "Chemise left by the King Louis XVI at the Temple 21st January 1793". The shirt remained in the family of Louis's valet de chambre Cléry until 1882 when the husband of Cléry's great-granddaughter sold it to M.Philippe Gille.  There are records for its sale in Rouen in 1896 and by Drouot in Pescheteau on 20 March 1965 (Lot no.43)
http://www.piasa.auction.fr/FR/vente_peintures_arts_graphiques/v5371_piasa/l576404_chemise_qui_aurait_ete_quittee_par_louis_xvi_le_matin_du_21_janvier_1793.html

Memories from the Temple - Collection Alain Bancel

Alain Bancel was a collector with an obsessive interest in the French Revolution's saddest victim, the little Dauphin Louis-Charles, posthumously recognised as Louis XVII. Over thirty years, he managed to amass in his modest apartment in northern Paris a collection to rival that of the Carnavalet. 

Unhappily on M. Bancel's death in 2003 his collection was "victime du fisc" and had to be dispersed. It became one of the auctions of the season. There were 470 lots,with an estimate of 450,000 € and the sale eventually realised 760,000 €. 

Some of these rare pictures and objects have now found their way into public collections.  But how extraordinary to see photos of them jumbled together in true 18th-century style in M. Bancel's home!. (Photos from the website Musée Louis xvii.)

Marie-Antoinette at the Château du Cambon

Here is another nice place for the holiday itinerary!  The Château du Cambon in the Auvergne, beautiful in itself, is venue for18th-century themed concerts and events, amd home to an obsessively accumulated collection of works of art and memorabilia relating to Marie-Antoinette.

More royal hair

This gold ring containing the interlaced hair of Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI originally belonged to the duchesse de Tourzel and was part of the collection of the comte de Paris sold by Christie's in Paris on 14 October 2008. The estimate was an absurdly low 1,500 to 2,000 Euros; in the end it sold for €25,700!

Was Marie-Antoinette a redhead?

Dumont, Marie-Antoinette

This miniature of Marie-Antoinette represents that irritating internet phenomenon, an image which is endlessly reproduced on Tumblr, Pinterest and various blogs, but with no real information about its provenance. The original post, I think, was the one listed below on the Grand ladies website.