Catalogue de Tableaux précieux des Trois Ecoles, Dessins montés sous verre et en feuilles, la plupart des Anciens Maitres d’Italie et des Pays-Bas, Provenant du Cabinet de… La Vente aura lieu le Mercredi 10 Décembre et jours suivants…
1 p.l., ii, 34 pp. 8vo (213 x 136 mm.), late 19th-cent. marbled boards, leather lettering-piece on spine. Paris: Lacoste & Pérignon, 1817.
A very scarce sale catalogue dispersing paintings, drawings, and curiosities from the collection and inventory of Pérignon (1785-1864), the dealer, collector, and advisor to the Louvre. Pérignon was one of the eminent dealers to succeed Lebrun and Paillet after their deaths. The first recorded sale for which he was the expert took place in December 1813 (Lugt 8456). He went on to administer the important auctions of Hubert Robert’s widow, Girodet, Dominique-Vivant Denon, and two for Jacques Louis David. The Louvre named Pérignon commissaire-expert to the Musées royaux in 1816, an influential post in which he was responsible for recommending purchases.
The present auction was one of several Pérignon employed to sell portions of his stock. The British Library’s copy of this catalogue bears an inscription indicating that other art dealers, such as Lafontaine, Henry, and Ch. Paillet, had consigned a few lots. The catalogue describes 165 lots, including the work of Lucas Cranach, Demarne, H. Fragonard, Greuze, G. Poussin, Guercino, Dujardin, Vigée Lebrun, Mengs, Miel, Mola, A. van Ostade, Raphael, Steen, D. Teniers, P. & Ph. Wouwerman, etc., etc. Most of the pictures are described at length, and each entry provides measurements. Lots 119-129 comprise of drawings, prints, and medallions; the final lots consist of sculpture, ceramics, porcelain, ornate clocks, and furniture.
A nice copy of a rare catalogue. We find a primitive architectural pencil sketch, possibly contemporary, on the rear free endpaper verso. With the engraved bookplate of G[eorges] P[annier] (1853-1944), the Parisian art dealer and collector of early art auction catalogues, on the front paste-down; the stamp of the Bibliothèque Heim on verso of title; and the stamp of Louis Soullié (1860-1940), the pre-eminent dealer of auction catalogues, whose shop was located at 25, rue de Lille in Paris, on the recto of the rear free endpaper.
❧ Lugt 9256. For an instructive examination of Pérignon’s life see Laurence Lhinares, “Alexis-Nicolas Pérignon (1785-1864), peintre, expert, marchand et collectionneur,” in La revue des musées de France, Revue du Louvre, no. 5, 2013.
Price: $950.00
Item ID: 7355
