Wednesday the 15th of October 2014 - Christie’s
announces the sale CHÂTEAU - A Distinguished American Collection of
Important 19th century Furniture & Works of Art which will be
offered on 28 October 2014. This important collection presents
superlative examples of 19th century decorative arts assembled by a
private American collector, focusing on signed pieces of the highest
quality in the French Royal styles of the Ancien Régime. Comprising 66
lots, the sale presents masterpieces by the period’s preeminent
craftsman, including François Linke, Alfred Beurdeley, Guillaume Grohé,
Mathieu Befort and Henry Dasson, whose furniture was supplied from Paris
to a global market. Their clients included Kings, Kaisers, Maharajas,
and titans of industry and commerce such as the Rothschilds, who created
an aesthetic and lifestyle which was emulated by powerful families in
the United States of America, such as the Vanderbilts, Astors and
Rockefellers. This collection evokes the grand Beaux-Arts building
projects of the 19th century, when a new international elite competed to
furnish their magnificent Renaissance-style châteaux with the most
palatial furniture and objects. Beaux-Arts architecture and French
furniture became hallmarks of America’s Gilded Age, and this sale offers
today’s collectors the opportunity to acquire exceptional works of art
in this proud tradition. With estimates ranging from £3,000 to £400,000,
the collection is expected to realise in excess of £3 million. The
great wealth
of the 19th century, generated by
industrial advancement and global trade and commerce, gave rise to a new
breed of collectors who sought to emulate the opulence of the ‘Grand
Century’ as embodied by Louis XIV, ‘The Sun King’ and the Château de
Versailles. These new collectors created the market for antiques and
works of art dispersed by the French Revolution, and their demand for
furniture drove a renaissance of French furniture making in the 19th
century. For this market Parisian ébénistes of the 19th century crafted
furniture and works of art of a quality which in the century prior were
the reserve of the nobility. This sale is a collection of the most
magnificent furniture and works of art created during the 19th century.
