October 27th Sale at Sotheby's to offer selection from BRAQUENIE - A HISTORY OF FRENCH DECOR At the Galerie Charpentier, Sotheby's will offer a number of tapestries, gouache and watercolour plans, sketches of tapestries, chair upholstery, rugs and furniture from Braquenie.
tapestries made or acquired by La Maison Braquenié (petit point, gros point, flat weave, canvas and tapestry) since the 17th century. Some, accompanied by the initial plans, illustrate the different stages in the creation of a design, from the sketch to the textile version via the planned placing of a design within a particular décor. Allégorie des douze mois de l'année after Claude II Audran, Antoine Watteau and Alexandre-François Desportes is a marvellous example. These twelve pictures, estimated at 15,000 to 20,000 €, are followed by a gouache and watercolour on paper showing the décor for which these panels were destined (estimate:100 / 150 €).
Among the tapestry sketches are a pair of 20th century French school canvases offering an elegant composition of weapons trophies and garlands of flowers (estimate: 600 / 800 €).
The sale will offer a large selection of tapestries dating from the 17th to 20th centuries. The oldest piece, woven in Flanders in the middle of the 17th century, is Cléopâtre in which she is sitting inside accompanied by two servants, allowing a serpent to wind around her left arm (estimate:8.000 / 12.000 €). La Pêche, a tapestry realised from a Huet sketch, shows a romantic 18th century style scene (estimate:1,000 / 1,500 €). Illustrative of the section devoted to modern design, is a third entitled Univers marin which was produced at Aubusson in 1958 from a sketch by Alain Hieronimus, the French illustrator who was a contemporary of Jean Lurçat (estimate:800 / 1,200 €).
A set of four flat weave 18th century style tapestry panels is decorated with musical trophies suspended on garlands above huge bouquets of flowers against a cream and red background (estimate:5,000 / 8,000 €).
Among the rugs are several Aubusson designs that will arouse the interest of enthusiasts including a large flat weave Louis XVI style rug with a decoration of Athenians adorned with flowers against a cream background (estimate:6,000 / 8,000 €). A Savonnerie flat weave design has an 18th century style composition: a central medallion with floral motifs surrounded by garlands and flowers on a black background framed by a frieze with a geometric design (285 x 390 cm, estimate: 4,000 / 5,000 €).
The sale will offer a variety of chair upholstery including a gros point canvas in the style of the second half of the 17th century, with a decoration of pomegranates, broad leaves, stylised fruit and flowers (estimation for the lot composed of several pieces: 1,200 /1,800 €). A Beauvais flat stitch tapestry with a vase décor from which a bouquet of flowers emerges is a beautiful example of the upholstery in fashion in the 18th century (estimate:500 / 800 €).
The sale will consist of some furniture including a three leaf folding screen in so-called Savonnerie weave in the style of Louis XV. Each leaf is decorated with birds poised on flowering shrubs (estimate:6,000 / 8,000 €). A rectangular Louis XVI style gilded wood seat sculpted with lattice work and rosettes, covered with a flat
