Fig.
1. The Reconciliation probably by Denière & Matelin, early Fig.
19th centur
The State Hermitage Museum, St.
Petersburg,
Inv.
Н.ск-217. no. Photograph © The State Hermitage Museum
At their meeting at Tilsitt in June 1807, the French Emperor
Napoléon received from the Russian Tsar Alexander I several
magnificent gifts, including many malachite pieces that were
later mounted in gilt-bronze by François-Honoré-Georges Jaco b-
Desmalter after designs by the architects Charles Percier and
Pierre-François Fontain
2. The Quarrel probably by Denière & Matelin, early 19th
century
The State Hermitage Museum, St.
Petersburg, Inv.
Н.ск-218. no. Photograph © The State Hermitage Museum
shiny gilding, or gilt-bronze versus patinated bronze, or gilt-
bronze versus malachite in this case
And thus the iconic duo of gilt-bronze a nd
malachite was born: Russian malachite mounted with French gilt
bronze became highly fashionable among members of the Frenc
and the Russian Empire’s high society and collectors of the time
Interestingly, related figures on red marble bases probably by
Denière & Matelin are located at the Hermitage, St Petersburg
(fig.1, inv.
Н.ск-217 and Н.ск-218).
no. During the Directoire period
(1795-1799), Matelin had created an original set comprising a pair
of candelabra and a clock- the candelabra located at the Ba
Homburg Castle (ill
Augarde, op.
cit.,
p.71, fig 12) and the clock
at Schloss Fasanerie (ill.
p.70, fig 11).
In October
1803, he sold a copy of ‘Le Raccommodement’ to the merchant
Phillipe-François Devillaine, and six months later, in May 1804,
he supplied him with a pair of candelabra with ‘La Brouille’.
He
also assembled the figures of ‘La Brouille’ on a clock in the Musée
Marmottan, Paris (ill.
Augarde, op.
cit.,
p.71, fig 13) and the figures
of ‘Le Raccommodement’ on a clock now in the Palazzo Pitti
(ill.
in Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen,
Munich, 1986, Vol.
I, p.369, fig. 5.13.11)
The art of gilded bronze in France was already brought to its
pinnacle at the end of the 18th century.
The imagination of form s,
casting, chasing and gilding had simultaneously reached a leve l
of absolute perfection.
And the revisited Antiquity imposed its
sleek lines and vocabulary with the Greek and Roman mytholo gy,
history and literature providing the heroic and allegorical subje cts
used throughout the Decorative Arts of the time.
This quality
of detail and the play between the gilding and light are obvious
while contemplating Orpheus and Eurydice, the figures possibl y
represented in ‘La Dispute’ and ‘Le Raccodomement’.
About 3,000 kilometers away, in Russia, malachite was
becoming the ‘national stone’ of the country.
With direct acce s
to the Urals and Altai mountains, Russia had since the middle
of the 18th century shown interest in geological exploration an d
mineralogy.
A few years after the Peterhof lapidary manufact ure
founded in 1721 by Peter the Great, two other manufactories
were founded, Ekateringburg in 1726 and Kolyvan in 1786.
Du e
to the fragile nature of malachite, it was not initially possible
to use it in large scale pieces, however the Russian lapidaries
perfected a technique to compensate for this, known as
`Russian mosaic’: they would saw a piece of stone into small
plaques from two to four millimeters, carefully selecting them
for their pattern.
After grinding and polishing the stone, they
would then glue these pieces to the metal or stone base skillf ully
masking the edges between each plaque of malachite.
The only other examples of Jean-François Denière and Matelin
combining gilt-bronze and malachite are two similar mantel
clocks, one from the Horace Wood Brock Collection, which was
exhibited at the Frick Collection, New York in 2014, the other
offered at Sotheby’s, Paris, 28 November 2017, lot 92.
DENIÈRE & MATELIN
François Thomas Matelin (1759–1815) and Jean-François Denière
(1774−1866) established their workshop in Paris in 1803, and
records show that it was based at 58 rue de Turenne in 1813
and at 9 rue d’Orléans by 1820, when their partnership ended.
During this period the firm flourished and supplied clocks and
candelabra for the French palaces, most notably Versailles and
the Grand Trianon.
The suppression of guilds in 1791 opened the
way to establishments grouping all the trades necessary for the
realization of a finished product, it is the case in particular for
the gilded bronze of Deniere & Matelin which in 1818 included a
foundry, a moulding shop (workshop of moulding), the workshops
of the bronzeturners, chisellers and gilders.
In 1807, Deniere &
Matelin claimed to employ between 200 and 400 workers.
It seems clear that gilt-bronze and malachite were materials
perfected respectively in France and Russia, so the fashion
to combine the two, with the vibrant green of the malachite
contrasting brilliantly with gilt-bronze is not surprising.
This In 1844, Denière’s son Guillaume went into partnership with him
was a result as well of the Empire style with which came a ta ste and in the following years they exhibited at numerous exhibitions
for mixing textures and highlighting contrasts between dark including the Great Exhibitions of 1851 and 1862 in London, as
and lighter materials or finishes (for example, matte versus the company’s work was illustrated in J.B.
122
Waring’s treatises.