Lot 48: A ROYAL LOUIS XIV SAVONNERIE CARPET

France, Mid-17th Century Having a mixed flower bouquet on the navy blue to black field within a wide navy blue to black border of flowering baskets and bountiful ribbon-tied bouquets Approximately 10ft. x 7ft. 1in. (305cm. x 216cm.) NOTES The present lot belongs to an early group of French Savonnerie carpets frequently referred to as Louis XIII carpets. It is widely believed that this carpet and similar carpets were actually woven not during the reign of Louis XIII but between his death in 1643 and the succession of Louis XIV to the throne in 1661. On January 4, 1608, Henri IV encouraged French carpet production by granting workshop space in the basement of the Louvre below the Grande Galerie to Pierre Dupont tapissier ordinaire en tapis de Turquie at fa‡ons de Levant, (see Verlet, Pierre, The James Rothschild Collection at Waddersdon Manor, The Savonnerie, The National Trust, London, 1982, p. 28). One of Dupont's apprentices, Simon Lourdet, quickly became so proficient in the trade that he ingratiated himself to the Queen, Marie de Medicis, who allowed him to install another workshop in the former soap factory, or savonnerie at Chaillot. A partnership agreement between Dupont and Lourdet was signed on September 5, 1626 to share the profits and expenses of both workshops and both produced carpets of very similar design up until 1664. As no records survive from this period it is very difficult to specifically attribute this carpet to either workshop. Carpets from this period share in common many features, foremost the black or dark blue and sometimes brown ground color that is replete with strewn colorful, naturalistic and identifiable single flowers or sprays. A wide and defined border surrounds the field containing similar flowers and floral arrangements creating a millefleurs effect. Often the flower arrangements in the border are sitting in blue and white Chinese porcelain bowls, silver basins, cartouches, or as seen in our example low open work straw baskets. The minor borders separating the border from the field and outlining the border are typically drawn from elements of the antique or from borders used in tapestries from the same period. A scrolled leaf and leaf tip ornament is used in the inner border of our example with a similar variation in the outer border. It is not known who designed or provided the models for these carpets but the overall concept is based on Oriental (Persian, Indian and Turkish) carpets combined with the European taste for flowers. Contemporary designs for embroidery and tapestries are very similar and Dupont was known to be an embroiderer, as well as a carpet weaver. Another artist working for the crown, Georges Baussonnet signed a number of drawings dated between 1592 and 1636 that are quite similar to the accurate depiction of flower specimens in these carpets (see Verlet, fig. 101). Further inspiration can be found in still life paintings from the Netherlands and one in particular, painted by Jacques Linard (c. 1600-45) of a Basket of Flowers currently in the Louvre, bears strong resemblence to the depiction of the basket of flowers in the borders of our carpet (see Sherrill, Sarah, Carpets and Rugs of Europe and America, Abbeville Press, New York, 1996, p. 65, plate 69). The strong similarities and repetitious designs of the so-called Louis XIII carpets from this period indicate that the repertoire of designs of this relatively young workshop was limited. However, this also suggests that they were a success and found favor with the court. The production of Savonnerie carpets at this time was solely made for the order of the King, his family and as dignitary gifts to foreign diplomats and to members of his court. Most of these so-called Louis XIII carpets, with a few exceptions, are small in size. The smaller carpets were perhaps intended as table carpets while the bigger carpets were used as floor coverings. Many of the carpets thought to have been used as table carpets include depictions of companes or tassels, which would hang down from the table in a trompe l'oeil imitation of the bell-like tassels found embellishing needlepoint and tapestry furniture coverings of the time. Because the offered carpet is of relatively small size, it is possible that its original function was as a table carpet but unlike other examples of table carpets it is lacking the depiction of tassels. Several carpets from this group survive, in the Louvre, cat. no. 300, illustrated in Verlet, fig. 106, p. 171; in the Wrightsman Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, see Watson, F.J.B., The Wrightsman Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1966, vol. II, plate 276, pp. 492-493; in the James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddeson Manor, see Verlet, cat. No. 1 fig. 104, pp. 168-170; in the Mus‚e Nissim de Camondo, inv. no. 177; in the J. Paul Getty Museum, no. 70.DC.63, see Bremer-David, Charissa, French Tapestries and Textiles in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 1997, pp. 130-137; in the Tarica Collection, illustrated in Faniel, Stephane and Lavallois, Pierre, Le Dix-septiŠme SiŠcle Fran‡ais, Collection Connaissance des Arts, Hachette, Paris, 1958, p. 131; the ex-collection of Thelma Chrysler Foy, sold at Parke-Bernet galleries, New York, May 22-23, 1959, lot 770; and anonymous, Sotheby's, New York, October 14, 1988, lot 94. All of these carpets share with the present carpet an exuberance of detail in the flowers on a navy blue to brown field. The drawing of the open work wicker basket on our example is very similar to the treatment of the basket of flowers on both the Rothschild and Getty examples.