Lot n° 4
Estimation :
60000 - 80000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 91 000EUR
CHRISTOFLE, Goldsmiths - Lot 4
CHRISTOFLE, Goldsmiths
REIBER Émile "Cat and mouse", 1880
A rare and spectacular vase sculpture in galvanic copper alloy adorned with silver or gold.
The dreamlike composition is based around a baluster vase with two handles, wickerwork neck and base and gold wheat ears on a copper-red ground, a group of five carefree silver mice and a cat with finely chiseled fur, mischievously and greedily watching for prey.
On the japanese base, a mouse appears to be joining the group, its paws clinging to the basketwork.
The piece rests on a gold and black patinated Japanese base.
Signed: "Christofle Orfèvres" on the base of the vase and numbered "1080796" under the base of the pedestal.
Size: 46 x 36 x 28 cm
Bibliography: Audrey Gay-Mazuel. "Christofle, une brillante histoire". Catalog of the Exhibition at the Musée des Arts
Décoratifs Paris. November 14, 2024-April 2025. Similar piece presented and described under N° 127 page 279, bearing the number 1080798.
Technique: "These polychrome inlaid and relief bronzes are available in a variety of shapes and colors, allowing them to be personalized.
Chromatic contrasts, reliefs and textures are created from galvanic copper adorned with silver or gold patinated in different shades. Colored golds are produced by integrating silver into gold baths, or by using red iron oxide after gilding.
The recurring two-tone gold and black decorations are obtained using copper-plated brass: the parts intended to be darkened are protected by a tinted varnish when the part is immersed in a gilding bath combined with electric current. The final stage consists of removing this protection, then chemically coloring the non-gilded areas".
Julie Scröter. Curator-restorer of metals and PhD in art history.
Catalog insert "Christofle, une brillante passion" MAD Paris.
History: Émile REIBER (18-26-1893).
Of Alsatian origin, Emile-Auguste Reiber (1826-1893) studied architecture in Paris with Blouet. He was awarded the Grand Prix in 1850.
He turned to drawing for the industrial arts, collaborating with ceramist Deck, an Alsatian like himself, and above all founding the magazine
L'Art pour tous, a publication specializing in the application of art to industry. Christofle appointed him head of the composition and drawing workshop, and in this capacity he supplied the company with a large number of drawings and plans, many of which were executed. Reiber distinguished himself by the speed with which he found in the different styles he studied an inexhaustible source of inspiration: he exploited in turn Antiquity, the German Renaissance, the Louis XVI style and above all Japanese art, which, from 1869 onwards, was an extraordinary discovery for him. The Musée Oriental, which that year brought together a number of Asian furniture and objects from private Parisian collections, and even more so, the 1873 exhibition of the collection of fifteen hundred bronzes brought back from Japan by M. Cernuschi, reinforced his nascent enthusiasm. His activity greatly contributed to the renewal of goldsmith's and silversmith's forms, and is a good example of the role played by architects in the evolution of the arts in the second half of the 19th century. When he founded Christofle & Cie in 1845
Charles Christofle, the son of a family of small-scale industrialists, was already attuned to the technological innovations of the time. The former goldsmith to
Louis-Philippe's goldsmith had to face up to the demands of a burgeoning bourgeoisie and the many counterfeits, and in 1848 he introduced his own hallmark. Napoleon III came to power and counted him among his best customers, ordering the prestigious tableware for the Tuileries receptions in 1853. Two years later, Charles Christofle was awarded the Medal of Honor at the Paris Exposition Universelle, symbolizing and confirming his flourishing success. Around 1857, in parallel with the many prestigious orders, the company set up its own worldwide sales network. At the end of the Second Empire, Charles Christofle and his nephew Henri Bouilhet decided to apply the electrochemical electroplating process to industrial production.
Éric Grangeon "Émile rieber, a precursor of Japonisme". Opuscule N°1.
In 1863, Henri Bouilhet and Paul Christofle succeeded the company's founder, continuing the master's work and bringing a fresh eye tinged with Orientalism. Around the World's Fairs of 1867 in Paris, 1873 in Vienna and 1878 in Paris, the new duo set up a whole new communications campaign, highlighting cloisonné enamels and Japonism. The trade agreements signed between
Japan in 1
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