Screen
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Six-leaf folding screen, mounted with Savonnerie carpet panels representing animals and birds after designs by Desportes in a later gilt-wood frame.
Panel 1 depicts a pair of red squirrels above an arched frame of blue acanthus leaves, over a canopy of red, blue and white plumes. Below the canopy, a pair of snakes is entwined in grasses arching over a background of blue sky against which a blue and yellow parrot sits on top of a trellis panel, next to a tall black bird, with yellow plumage on its head. Pink roses climb up the panel, and, on the ground, there are three ducks.
Panel 2 is framed by a narrow acanthus border in red, blue, pink and yellow. At the top, a tasselled hunting bag hangs from the central leaf, with a dead partridge under the flap. The bag is encircled by a garland of pink roses, below which are criss-crossed branches bearing rose hips. A hawk swoops down, above a miniature orange tree with blossom and fruit, heading for three pheasants on the ground.
Panel 3 has a wider ground colour border, and the pictorial element is framed by the twisted branches of a vine. A pair of blue and red parrots flutter at the top, over branches laden with grapes. A pale sky is visible behind, with a small bird taking off. Below, a pair of leopards feed on grapes.
Panel 4 shows a toucan and another exotic bird perched on branches against a deep blue sky. The birds and animals are framed by twisted branches, with a bower of roses and grapes above birds cavorting mid-flight, over a pair of foxes on the ground.
Panel 5 has a hunting horn suspended from the acanthus border at the top, with garlands of flowers behind. Below, a stag hides in the bush, with only his head visible, while a pair of hounds, alerted to his scent, try to reach him.
Panel 6 mirrors panel 1 in design, with an arched frame of acanthus leaves, over a canopy of red, blue and white plumes. Four small birds sit on the leaves, or amongst the tall grass, looking down on a pair of monkeys in the peach bush below. The left monkey holds a peach up towards one of the birds. On the ground is a pair of rabbits.
The panels all have the same brown or orange ground colour and are contained in a 19th-century carved and gilt wood frame. They are backed with plain cream silk.
Although royal carpet-weaving workshops were already in existence at the Louvre, it was in 1630 that a larger workshop was set up at an abandoned soap factory (savon is French for soap, hence the name Savonnerie) in Chaillot, a village to the south-west of Paris. This became the royal carpet manufactory, and was patronised by all the French kings for palace furnishings and diplomatic gifts.
In addition to carpets for tables and floors, the Savonnerie produced carpet panels for mounting onto furniture, usually screens, benches and stools. This large-scale Savonnerie folding screen is after designs by Alexandre-François Desportes. The animals are thought to be those in the royal menagerie at Versailles. These screen panels, produced from 1719, were only used in royal residences, usually in ante rooms, where the furnishings needed to be luxurious, yet practical, excluding draughts or concealing servants. The panels were mounted in the current gilt frames in the 19th century. This screen is an important survival, and complements other Savonnerie carpet-mounted furniture at Waddesdon.
Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)
each panel 1860 x 635
Labels
de Rothesay (illegible inventory number and arms of the Stuart de Rothesay family)
Label
handwritten label on underside of frame on one leaf
Provenance
- Possibly acquired by Lord Charles Stuart de Rothesay (b.1779, d.1845); in the collection of Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford (b.1818, d.1891); acquired by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (b.1839, d.1898); inherited by his sister Miss Alice de Rothschild (b.1847, d.1922); inherited by her great-nephew James de Rothschild (b.1878, d.1957); bequeathed to Waddesdon (National Trust) in 1957.
Collection
- Waddesdon (National Trust)
- Bequest of James de Rothschild, 1957
Bibliography
- Linley, Sunday Telegraph Review on Extraordinary Furniture, 1996
- Sir Francis Watson, French Eighteenth Century Furniture at Waddesdon, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 54, August 1959, 28-31
- Embroidery. Journal of the Embroiderers' Guild; Spring 1972?
- Nicole Garnier, Anne Forray-Carlier, Marie-Christine Anselm; Singeries et Exotisme chez Christophe Huet; Paris; Editions d'Art Monelle Hayot; 2010; see first page. J. Paul Getty Museum screen very similar
- ♦, ♦; Ulrich Leben, Danielle Kisluk-Grosheide, Deborah L. Krohn; Salvaging the Past: Georges Hoentschel and the French Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture (April 4 to August 11, 2013); Italy; Yale University Press, The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; p. 31
- Anika Reineke; Der Stoff der Räume. Textile Raumkonzepte im französischen Interieur des 18. Jahrhunderts; Germany; Edition Imorde; 2020; p.106
Related files
- Entry from (Pierre Verlet, 1982), http://api.waddesdon.org.uk/docs/Savonnerie/2318.pdf