Catalogue de la Collection Chinoise, en objets d’arts, d’industrie, de curiosités et d’ornemens, costumes, meubles, ustensiles, etc.; des Sculptures sur pierres dures et tendres, telles que jade, cristal de roche, améthyste, aventurine, agate, pierre de lard et autres; des Bronzes damasquinés en or et argent, des Bijoux, Coffrets et Vases en filigrane d’or et d’argent, des Ivoires, de la Vannerie, des Bambous travaillés, des Laques ou Vernis du Japon, des Porcelaines anciennes, richement garnies en bronze doré, etc., composant le Cabinet de M. F. Sallé, artiste et ancien négociant en Objets d’arts. La Vente s’en fera publiquement…le 11 avril 1826, et jours suivans…
80 pp. 8vo (216 x 135 mm.), early 20th-cent. cloth-backed marbled boards & orig. printed wrappers mounted on stubs, gilt title on spine. Paris: Bonnefons Delavialle, Ch. Paillet; London: Treuttel & Wurtz, Jarman; Amsterdam: Dufour & De la Chaux; Brussels: Danot; Berlin: Logier & Simon Schropp; Vienna: Schabacher, [1826].
A fascinating and rare auction catalogue of an extensive and influential collection of Asian artifacts belonging to a “F. Sallé,” with many contemporary pencil annotations in the margins. We have been unable to ascertain his first name, but Sallé appears in numerous early 19th-century Parisian auction catalogues as the commissaire-priseur.
This was the greatest collection of Chinese materials after that of the renowned sinophile Henri Léonard Jean Baptiste Bertin (1720-92), powerful ministre d’Etat under Louis XV and XVI. Most of Bertin’s collection was dispersed in 1792 without a catalogue; in 1815, a catalogued auction (Lugt 8637) was held to sell off the final portion of the collection.
Sallé’s is an important catalogue not just for its contents but also its Introduction, which closely details the formation of Sallé’s collection through auctions — Potoscka, Titzeng, Tersan, Vata, Madame Maqueron, captain Thierry, etc. — and private sales in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Russia. The auctioneer notes that Sallé’s collection is four times larger than Bertin’s was at its peak. A second, lesser sale from his collection occurred the next year (Lugt 11359).
This catalogue presents 795 lots, including lacquerware, perfume, books, scrolls, ink, paper, paintings, silk, porcelain, enamel, weapons, fireworks, musical instruments, coins, Japanese copper, ceramics, gold and silver, minerals, etc., etc. The linguist and explorer Julius Klaproth (1783-1835) assisted in the translation of inscriptions found on many pieces of the collection. In the Introduction, two items are highlighted: the first, a lacquer cabinet gifted by Marie Antoinette to Anne Vallayer-Coster; the second, two Chinese ivory reliefs once in Paris’s museum of natural history. A table of contents is found on pages 77-78.
A very good copy, with some foxing to the final leaves. With the schedule of sale at the end. Ownership inscription of Marcel Nicolle (1871-1934), curator at the Louvre and critic, on the upper wrapper, and stamp of the Bibliothèque Heim on verso of title.
❧ Lugt 11133.
Price: $2,750.00
Item ID: 7189
