FRENCH EMPIRE MAHOGANY POUDREUSE
EARLY 19TH CENTURY
£580
Auction: Day 2 - Thurs 15th May from 10am | Lots 314 to 602
Description
the hinged top with a mirror to the reverse, opening to a tray top interior, over three short frieze drawers, the centre drawer fitted with a black leather lined sliding writing surface, raised on fluted tapered legs ending in brass caps and wood castors
Dimensions
81cm wide, 77cm high, 49cm deep
Provenance
Provenance: Professor Robert Knecht (1926-2023), Birmingham, thence by descent. This pondreuse is reputed to have been inherited by Robert Knecht from his mother's ancestors, the Mioux family, from the Blois region, Loire Valley, France.
When this piece was inherited by the current vendor it was accompanied by a letter in French written by Robert Knecht's grandmother. The letter translates as; "This is an heirloom inherited by my great grandmother Noémie Jullien from her mother, Agleé Dinochau. The latter bought it around 1835 when she settled at Saint-Dié-sur-Loire, the village closest to the château of Chambord. Tradition has it that the table had once belonged to the Duchesse de Polignac, who had been lady-in-waiting to Queen Marie-Antoinette. It has survived three wars: the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 when it was at the Château of La Borde, near Blois; the First World War when it was hidden in the attic of the Château of Ecouen; and finally the second world war when it was in London throughout the blitz"
Professor Knecht was a historian of 16th-century France. A lecturer and later professor at the University of Birmingham from the late 1950s until his retirement in 1994, he was the author of 20 monographs, and his book ‘The French Renaissance Court’ (2008) was awarded the Enid McLeod prize by the Franco-British Society in 2009.