1 00:00:13,140 --> 00:00:21,930 Welcome to In the Footsteps of My Ultranet, I'm Katrina Seth Marshall, Frosch, professor of French literature at the University of Oxford. 2 00:00:21,930 --> 00:00:29,400 This is a torch supported project looking at the presence of objects relating to Marie Ultranet in public collections. 3 00:00:29,400 --> 00:00:53,250 Our first stop is the Wallace Collection in London, where we'll be meeting Dr. Helen Jacobsen, curator of French 18th Century Decorative Arts. 4 00:00:53,250 --> 00:00:57,050 We're standing in the study of the Wallace collection, 5 00:00:57,050 --> 00:01:05,910 the study at Hartford House used to be the townhouse of Sir Richard and Lady Wallace and was turned into a national museum in nineteen hundred. 6 00:01:05,910 --> 00:01:13,380 We opened to great acclaim. Such was the interest in the collection of Sir Richard and his wife. 7 00:01:13,380 --> 00:01:22,230 And in French 18th century art at the time, both paintings and decorative art, the bulk of the French 18th century decorative art collection, 8 00:01:22,230 --> 00:01:29,850 particularly the furniture and porcelain relating to Marie Antoinette, was bought by the Fourth Marquis of Hartford. 9 00:01:29,850 --> 00:01:38,100 He was one of the greatest European collectors. He lived from eighteen hundred to 1870 and he spent most of his life in Paris. 10 00:01:38,100 --> 00:01:43,860 So in fact, this collection is rather more French in flavour than British. 11 00:01:43,860 --> 00:01:47,400 The fourth marquis was a great connoisseur in his own right. 12 00:01:47,400 --> 00:01:53,160 He was very, very interested in furniture, in gilt, bronze, in porcelain. 13 00:01:53,160 --> 00:01:58,890 He loved a good royal provenance dating back to the 18th century, being a British aristocrat. 14 00:01:58,890 --> 00:02:04,080 Perhaps he related to the RCA regime and the royal family and the aristocracy. 15 00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:13,410 But I think it's fair to say also that he was swayed a little bit by taste because after the revolution, so many things were sold. 16 00:02:13,410 --> 00:02:20,160 Huge sales from their side, from the French royal palaces and the art market in the first two decades of the 19th 17 00:02:20,160 --> 00:02:26,820 century was flooded with RCR regime decorative art from these great royal provenances. 18 00:02:26,820 --> 00:02:32,070 The fourth marquis started buying seriously in the eighteen forties, eighteen fifties. 19 00:02:32,070 --> 00:02:38,310 He had a huge amount of money, which meant that he was really able to buy what he wanted. 20 00:02:38,310 --> 00:02:39,840 And this, combined with his great. 21 00:02:39,840 --> 00:02:48,510 I meant that he did end up buying some of the most fabulous pieces of 18th century decorative art ever made at the time. 22 00:02:48,510 --> 00:02:53,460 He probably didn't know the provenance of many of these pieces. Furniture history, 23 00:02:53,460 --> 00:02:58,440 porcelain history has come on so much that we are now able to put these things back 24 00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:02,970 into the spaces they were commissioned for and give them their first royal owners. 25 00:03:02,970 --> 00:03:06,840 Some of these pieces he might have known about. They have royal stamps on them. 26 00:03:06,840 --> 00:03:26,390 But I think on the whole, much of this was collected because of its sheer quality and beauty. 27 00:03:26,390 --> 00:03:33,120 Will he hit her? Sadly, large scale miniature of the Austrian royal family. 28 00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:40,960 We've got Maria Teresa. Miriam, its mother on the throne, on the right and opposite her husband, the emperor. 29 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:47,460 And in the background are the gates of the Shonn Roon Palace, the Vienna Summer Palace for the royal family. 30 00:03:47,460 --> 00:03:51,900 And they're accompanied by 13 of their children. 31 00:03:51,900 --> 00:03:58,890 We see the young Marie Antoinette, a small child of perhaps four or five in the centre foreground. 32 00:03:58,890 --> 00:04:03,060 It's a painting off to Van Matron's. 33 00:04:03,060 --> 00:04:09,670 It's known in various different forms. And sometimes there are different children in it because they had quite a large family. 34 00:04:09,670 --> 00:04:17,760 And from time to time, the artist added another child. Maria Teresa was known to like having portraits of her children. 35 00:04:17,760 --> 00:04:23,700 She commissioned Matson's to paint family scenes with all the children born alive. 36 00:04:23,700 --> 00:04:31,200 And the youngest one is generally in a cradle up the front and then gets promoted in the next iteration because another baby has come along. 37 00:04:31,200 --> 00:04:36,540 Maria Teresa's love for portraits of her family extended to miniatures. 38 00:04:36,540 --> 00:04:43,680 She had some very beautiful pastels of the children, which are painted when he was staying in Vienna. 39 00:04:43,680 --> 00:04:49,050 And she's known, even though parcels of fragile occasion, to have taken those with her when she went away. 40 00:04:49,050 --> 00:04:56,400 She also very much enjoyed any state portrait which gave dynastic impact. 41 00:04:56,400 --> 00:05:01,410 We all know that Maria Teresa's ambition was to make Austria as strong as possible. 42 00:05:01,410 --> 00:05:07,830 And one of the way she did that was through marrying her children to heirs of other families. 43 00:05:07,830 --> 00:05:14,850 Her great triumph, of course, was marrying my Ultranet, her youngest daughter, to the heir to the throne of France, the future. 44 00:05:14,850 --> 00:05:22,350 And we 16th when my Ultranet arrived at court in VSI, she would receive regular missives from her mother. 45 00:05:22,350 --> 00:05:27,360 Our mother was concerned. On the one hand about the fact that my Ultranet had produced no children. 46 00:05:27,360 --> 00:05:35,610 But Maria Teresa also spent an awful lot of time in her letters asking for a grand portrait of making Antoinette. 47 00:05:35,610 --> 00:05:44,670 She absolutely wants to be able to show off in her state rooms a picture of my Ultranet looking every inch, the future queen of France. 48 00:05:44,670 --> 00:05:48,240 It's a way of saying to her visitors, as soon as they walk in, look, 49 00:05:48,240 --> 00:05:52,410 not only am I the empress of Austria, but my daughter is going to be the queen of France. 50 00:05:52,410 --> 00:06:01,380 And we know that when my Ultranet finally got round to having majestic portraits of herself painted in particular a visitor, Bahah, 51 00:06:01,380 --> 00:06:06,810 in which she's in a white dress and looking very regal, Maria Teresa was satisfied, 52 00:06:06,810 --> 00:06:12,750 having earlier on said it's all very well sending me miniatures, but I want something large scale. 53 00:06:12,750 --> 00:06:17,880 Maria Teresa is an extraordinary hands on mother for someone as important. 54 00:06:17,880 --> 00:06:20,400 She's dealing with the affairs of state on a daily basis, 55 00:06:20,400 --> 00:06:36,900 but she's also dashing off letter after letter to her children in faraway places, worrying about what they're up to. 56 00:06:36,900 --> 00:06:44,390 I'm standing in front of two decorative plaques which show profiles of a very young and possibly embellished. 57 00:06:44,390 --> 00:06:49,410 Moving to Annette and Louise says, looking, I have to say, rather dapper. 58 00:06:49,410 --> 00:06:57,210 One presumes that these are clerks which were made early in the reign of Louis says, and that they had a market value. 59 00:06:57,210 --> 00:07:02,910 Would that be right? Yes. People liked to have images of the king and the queen. 60 00:07:02,910 --> 00:07:09,570 And as you say, these are a fairly young couple at this stage in a very, very decorative frame. 61 00:07:09,570 --> 00:07:19,170 Which one would have seen hanging on a wall? Presumably these particular plaques have a white marble background and the rest is gilt bronze, 62 00:07:19,170 --> 00:07:23,430 something for which the French were very famous in the 18th century. 63 00:07:23,430 --> 00:07:28,890 There are ribbons on the top and then there's a garland. Are the laurel leaves or something like that underneath? 64 00:07:28,890 --> 00:07:36,210 Yes, this is a very popular way of displaying medallions in this oval frame with a ribbon at the top. 65 00:07:36,210 --> 00:07:43,080 And as you say, the laurel leaves tied with ribbon below. One mustn't assume that these were purely decorative. 66 00:07:43,080 --> 00:07:49,650 However, as with many things, the French were very proud of their decorative arts excellence. 67 00:07:49,650 --> 00:07:54,060 And in fact, they were often centres diplomatic presence abroad. 68 00:07:54,060 --> 00:08:02,970 The plaque shows Marie Antoinette, with her hair, brushed back from her four head slightly puffed up and corkscrew curls down the back. 69 00:08:02,970 --> 00:08:06,510 But what for her would have been a relatively simple hairstyle at the time. 70 00:08:06,510 --> 00:08:11,850 We're used to seeing pictures of marking Ultranet with feathers and pompoms and lace. 71 00:08:11,850 --> 00:08:15,570 At one stage, a small model frigate in her hair. 72 00:08:15,570 --> 00:08:22,200 This looks rather like an idealised hairstyle rather than something which would necessarily have been taken from real life. 73 00:08:22,200 --> 00:08:28,920 We can see the shoulder line. Michael, it appears to have a very slightly off the shoulder dress with ruffle. 74 00:08:28,920 --> 00:08:32,880 And it does suggest there might be a difficulty at the front. 75 00:08:32,880 --> 00:08:39,720 There's no jewellery, which is surprising if we think about the general vision of my Ultranet as a young woman. 76 00:08:39,720 --> 00:09:04,560 Since we associate her with lots of diamonds and very large items of jewellery, these candlesticks are perhaps 20 centimetres high. 77 00:09:04,560 --> 00:09:09,930 They are very, very delicate, exquisitely modelled and chaste gilt bronze. 78 00:09:09,930 --> 00:09:16,650 They look actually like gold work rather than gilt bronze work, the detail of the scales on the dolphins. 79 00:09:16,650 --> 00:09:22,860 The base has got trellis work. And if you look in the centre of the trellis, there is the fleur de lis. 80 00:09:22,860 --> 00:09:30,000 They would have stood, as they do here on a piece of furniture, perhaps on a chest of drawers, on a full front desk, 81 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:38,400 or even on the chimney piece in the room of the dolphins there because they were made for the Dauphin, the wife of the duffer. 82 00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:43,650 No, it's a good guess, though. They are there because they represent the Dufka. 83 00:09:43,650 --> 00:09:51,780 These candlesticks were delivered to Marie Antoinette, her private room in Marseilles, after the birth of the diphones 1781. 84 00:09:51,780 --> 00:09:57,570 They represent the Dufay of France, the dolphin. They are the most exquisite pieces of gilt Brunswick. 85 00:09:57,570 --> 00:10:12,290 If you look closely, you can see the teeth on the dolphin Apsey, charming little animals. 86 00:10:12,290 --> 00:10:20,960 French furniture in the 18th century was celebrated and the number of the artisans, or maybe we should say artists names have come down to us. 87 00:10:20,960 --> 00:10:29,180 People like Urban or Duncan. But the one we associate most closely with Mung Ultranet is a German called Louisana. 88 00:10:29,180 --> 00:10:32,540 Can you tell us a little bit about his owner, Helen, 89 00:10:32,540 --> 00:10:39,620 and about the furniture which you have by his owner in the Wali's collection, which was actually made for muffing Ultranet? 90 00:10:39,620 --> 00:10:47,750 As you say, Reasoner was a German. He came to Paris probably in the late 1750 is certainly by the early 1716. 91 00:10:47,750 --> 00:10:57,650 He was working with Urban, a fellow German. And in fact, one has to say that he owes much of his success to those early training years with urban. 92 00:10:57,650 --> 00:11:07,400 Urban had a workshop in the arsenal, which was a privileged area of Paris, where he was able to produce furniture for the royal family. 93 00:11:07,400 --> 00:11:20,900 Urban died in 1763, at which point Reasoner was left in the workshop and over a period of a couple of years really asserted himself as the new urban. 94 00:11:20,900 --> 00:11:25,280 He married Urban's widow, which gave him control of the workshop. 95 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:32,570 Urban had started to make a very important piece of furniture for the king, known as the Bureau Du Bois. 96 00:11:32,570 --> 00:11:37,220 He started it in 1760, but it was unfinished when he died, 97 00:11:37,220 --> 00:11:45,080 and it was only towards the end of the 17th 60s when Reasoner was in control of the workshop that Reasoner finished it. 98 00:11:45,080 --> 00:11:51,860 We now know that much of it actually was designed by Urban, even probably made while he was still alive. 99 00:11:51,860 --> 00:11:58,370 But Reasoner had no qualms in signing his name on this desk and when it was delivered in 1769. 100 00:11:58,370 --> 00:12:06,890 Indeed, Reasoner took the credit for it. He had come to the notice of the official guard mirzakhani the furniture administration, 101 00:12:06,890 --> 00:12:18,680 and from 1774 he was created Ebony e Johore and spent 11 years making superb pieces of furniture for the royal family and for the court. 102 00:12:18,680 --> 00:12:25,610 We know that Miyata Annette was interested in the decorative programme of the rooms in which he liked to spend time, 103 00:12:25,610 --> 00:12:32,900 and there are traces of her very own choice and taste in some of the furniture which has come down to us. 104 00:12:32,900 --> 00:12:39,110 That's true. And in fact, one of the lovely things about this room where we're standing is that we have more pieces 105 00:12:39,110 --> 00:12:43,280 of furniture made for Marie Antoinette than I think in any other room in the world. 106 00:12:43,280 --> 00:12:52,090 And we have gilt bronze and we have served porcelain. All of which gives us a really interesting overview of Marie Antoinette's taste. 107 00:12:52,090 --> 00:12:56,750 When we look at the furniture, one of the things which is striking about it is a lot of it is quite small 108 00:12:56,750 --> 00:13:00,860 compared with number of the other items which will be made around the same time. 109 00:13:00,860 --> 00:13:07,700 Is that a demonstration of McCalpin, its taste, or is that because of the places she was intending to have the furniture put 110 00:13:07,700 --> 00:13:12,800 into the furniture here was made for Marie Antoinette's private apartment. 111 00:13:12,800 --> 00:13:16,830 So that is why we can actually make the extrapolation to her taste. 112 00:13:16,830 --> 00:13:22,970 It is Marie Antoinette who lives with these pieces. This is not something for a grand reception room. 113 00:13:22,970 --> 00:13:30,860 These are pieces that were in her cabinet and to hear a private study in her boudoir in the party trigonal. 114 00:13:30,860 --> 00:13:38,510 These are places for her. They're private spaces. So let's imagine that my Ultranet wants a new piece of furniture for her private apartments. 115 00:13:38,510 --> 00:13:42,830 What happens? Presumably she doesn't go down to see the Ebenezer's. 116 00:13:42,830 --> 00:13:47,030 Does he come along with a series of sketches? Is there an intermediary? 117 00:13:47,030 --> 00:13:53,870 How do we end up with a piece of furniture like the one in front of us with its amazing gilt, bronze and marquetry? 118 00:13:53,870 --> 00:13:58,400 I suspect that the queen did not meet the Ebony's directly. 119 00:13:58,400 --> 00:14:08,330 That seems quite unlikely, although we have comments from some of the other members of the royal family that they have approved designs by Reasoner. 120 00:14:08,330 --> 00:14:15,110 The queen had her own private wardrobe. The guard, Merv Dilan, and she commissioned furniture through that. 121 00:14:15,110 --> 00:14:20,510 She had a man overseeing that guard member who indeed would have been the intermediary. 122 00:14:20,510 --> 00:14:28,100 There was also the guard, Mervat Lac Cohon, which served the greater royal species and the royal palaces. 123 00:14:28,100 --> 00:14:32,960 And it's confusing. And Marie Antoinette, because sometimes things are ordered through the guard, Merv Dulac, 124 00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:38,080 Cohon, and sometimes through her own private guard, Mahbod private wardrobe. 125 00:14:38,080 --> 00:14:47,120 And in this room, we have examples of both those. So if we look at the ones which were ordered through Mutty onto Annetts private. 126 00:14:47,120 --> 00:14:51,430 What do we have here? This is a full front desk, a secretary, 127 00:14:51,430 --> 00:15:01,910 a battle made for Marie Antoinette through the auspices of the Goutman Dullahan and delivered for the Putih Triennial. 128 00:15:01,910 --> 00:15:10,610 It was actually placed in her boudoir, which was this rather wonderful corner room opening on to the bedroom and one side and the salon the other. 129 00:15:10,610 --> 00:15:13,960 Looking the gardens about which she was mad. 130 00:15:13,960 --> 00:15:24,250 And you can see from the gilt bronze immediately that she's trying to bring the garden inside these beautiful poses of Convolvulus of roses. 131 00:15:24,250 --> 00:15:34,840 And this wonderful wheat grass type freeze along the front, the gilt bronze embellishes what was once a very colourful marquetry. 132 00:15:34,840 --> 00:15:40,810 I'm afraid now it looks rather brown. But furniture was not brown in the late 18th century. 133 00:15:40,810 --> 00:15:49,360 It was, in fact, much more coloured than we could imagine. So the dark trellis work that you can see would have been a much deeper purple. 134 00:15:49,360 --> 00:15:54,430 The flower heads and the background to the flower heads would have been in contrasting colours. 135 00:15:54,430 --> 00:15:58,570 All of that set off with the guilt Rohn's you can imagine it looked completely stunning. 136 00:15:58,570 --> 00:16:03,670 So this would have been a riot of colours. What sort of wood was used to make furniture like this? 137 00:16:03,670 --> 00:16:08,710 The furniture is actually made on Oak Carcas. Very, very good quality oak. 138 00:16:08,710 --> 00:16:17,530 And then the cabinet maker has veneered the surfaces. So we have veneered amaranth or purple wood, a tropical hardwood. 139 00:16:17,530 --> 00:16:25,390 These woods were expensive. They were not readily available in Paris. They would have been shipped in the marquetry designs on the front, 140 00:16:25,390 --> 00:16:32,350 use some more tropical hardwoods, but also some local woods which could have been stained. 141 00:16:32,350 --> 00:16:36,490 So the battle comes down and we have a writing surface. 142 00:16:36,490 --> 00:16:41,170 And it's so eminently practical because if you've finished with your little Belayed, 143 00:16:41,170 --> 00:16:47,890 do you put the papers back in the cart on a close up the desk and you just have a very beautiful piece of furniture. 144 00:16:47,890 --> 00:17:02,250 And can we open this extraordinary piece of furniture? We can have French double lock. 145 00:17:02,250 --> 00:17:07,230 And here we have the beautifully untouched interior. This full front desk. 146 00:17:07,230 --> 00:17:10,410 So many of these pieces are in such great condition. 147 00:17:10,410 --> 00:17:15,870 But one has to remember that even if Marie Antoinette did use it, she didn't use it for very long. 148 00:17:15,870 --> 00:17:20,130 Because after 1789, she wouldn't have been the putty travel. 149 00:17:20,130 --> 00:17:26,400 And this would have only been in the Trion or for maybe six years by that stage. 150 00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:31,350 It's beautifully fitted with spaces for a silver inkwell sandbox. 151 00:17:31,350 --> 00:17:35,670 So all your accoutrements for writing would have been close to hand. 152 00:17:35,670 --> 00:17:39,550 We know that my ultraright occasionally dashed off very quick messages. 153 00:17:39,550 --> 00:17:46,350 For instance, if she wanted to get the Austrian ambassador to come and see her or if she had information which she wanted to convey to someone, 154 00:17:46,350 --> 00:17:54,570 she'd scribble something on a very small piece of paper and then hand it to one of her domestic servants sitting at a desk like this. 155 00:17:54,570 --> 00:18:00,090 Absolutely. This piece of furniture does not look as though you could sit in rated 250 page screed. 156 00:18:00,090 --> 00:18:03,900 This is for a little quick note to be dashed off. 157 00:18:03,900 --> 00:18:09,370 Seven to come and take it away and close up the desk. And they were back with a beautiful piece of furniture. 158 00:18:09,370 --> 00:18:16,950 The inside shows a series of pigeon holes. There are six of them and then six very small drawers. 159 00:18:16,950 --> 00:18:25,020 What I'm struck by is how very simple and elegant the interior is compared with a rather overstated exterior. 160 00:18:25,020 --> 00:18:31,350 Inside everything is plain wood marquetry, but very regular, very geometric. 161 00:18:31,350 --> 00:18:37,550 And we have rather wonderful laurel wreath shaped draw pulls in gilt bronze. 162 00:18:37,550 --> 00:18:44,550 And that's it is for us. The gilt bronze goes. Yes, it's very much about the effect of the plain veneer surfaces. 163 00:18:44,550 --> 00:18:50,430 So you have these wonderful satiny it's called satin, a veneer and purple wood. 164 00:18:50,430 --> 00:18:54,160 Then these strings, we call them of black and white. 165 00:18:54,160 --> 00:19:04,050 You see around the front of each drawer and on the surfaces of the cartoon here, wonderful little black and white strings all the way around. 166 00:19:04,050 --> 00:19:09,300 It just brings it all together. It gives it a certain quality of sophistication. 167 00:19:09,300 --> 00:19:14,760 And as you say, these lovely little gilt Rons handles very much in the Reasoners style. 168 00:19:14,760 --> 00:19:31,450 Maybe we better put the beautiful piece of furniture back, close up the back door and lock it up. 169 00:19:31,450 --> 00:19:39,550 It's an extraordinary functional key for such a beautiful piece of furniture, we know that some keys were made for my yacht when it was a famous one, 170 00:19:39,550 --> 00:19:44,410 for instance, with a dolphin on it, which is in the museum, dissected to mail in Cool. 171 00:19:44,410 --> 00:19:47,860 The Art Works Museum was made for her when she was the dolphin. 172 00:19:47,860 --> 00:19:56,950 This one's quite surprised that more was not made of the beautiful aspect, that there's no sort of bronze gilt head to the key or anything, 173 00:19:56,950 --> 00:20:01,240 which would suggest some link with the decorative programme of a piece of furniture. 174 00:20:01,240 --> 00:20:09,040 Yes, I suspect that many of the keys that were originally made were subsequently lost or even changed because of the royal attributes. 175 00:20:09,040 --> 00:20:14,650 Maybe this did have an M.A. cipher on it, but it no longer does. 176 00:20:14,650 --> 00:20:24,190 So this full front desk was made for Marie Antoinette by John Henry Reasoner and delivered in February 1783. 177 00:20:24,190 --> 00:20:33,760 It was actually made for the chateau of Mali. But in fact, it was delivered instead to VLSI, to her cabinet, a. to her private study. 178 00:20:33,760 --> 00:20:38,020 It seemed that she'd ordered some other furniture which was not ready from Reasoner. 179 00:20:38,020 --> 00:20:43,540 And so this was diverted for the best part of a year at her VLSI study. 180 00:20:43,540 --> 00:20:51,550 You can see that this desk has similar construction with six drawers and six pigeonholes. 181 00:20:51,550 --> 00:20:57,880 This time it's more an elaborate interior with just a little bit of delicate gilt bronze banding. 182 00:20:57,880 --> 00:21:05,680 And the characteristic laurel wreath handles. I suspect it had more interior decoration because this was for Mali. 183 00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:13,990 This was not for the pity tree and on the tea tree. And all was meant to be a simpler place where Mario Internet could get away from the 184 00:21:13,990 --> 00:21:19,570 pomp and circumstance and the grandeur of what she was surrounded with at VLSI. 185 00:21:19,570 --> 00:21:28,450 And indeed, even at Mali, the piano desk has a profusion of flowers, would have been very brightly coloured, so would have been extremely fashionable. 186 00:21:28,450 --> 00:21:32,920 This is, in a sense, a more serious desk, or at least that's the appearance it gives. 187 00:21:32,920 --> 00:21:40,930 That's interesting. We're looking at a piece which has been affected in the late 18th or early 19th century when the trellis marquetry 188 00:21:40,930 --> 00:21:47,860 that was so loved by the royal family and by Marie Antoinette was no longer seemed to be so fashionable. 189 00:21:47,860 --> 00:21:54,340 And several pieces of Royal Furniture have actually been riven aired since they came out of the Royal Collection. 190 00:21:54,340 --> 00:21:58,570 In this case, we have BRX. You would. It looks absolutely stunning. 191 00:21:58,570 --> 00:22:04,000 And in fact, it looks as if it was meant for the piece, particularly contrasting well with the gilt bronze. 192 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:10,030 But in fact, it was not how Reasoner finished this piece of furniture, which did originally have marquetry on it. 193 00:22:10,030 --> 00:22:13,900 The top of this desk is a slab of white veined marble. 194 00:22:13,900 --> 00:22:20,860 Do we know where the marble would have come from? This is Carrara marble and it's very much in keeping with the neoclassical fashion. 195 00:22:20,860 --> 00:22:28,810 So most of the pieces of furniture that we are looking at would have had white Carrara marble surfaces, which again, 196 00:22:28,810 --> 00:22:36,220 would have contrasted strongly with the colour of the marquetry and the gilt rooms would have looked quite exquisite. 197 00:22:36,220 --> 00:22:43,720 One has to remember, too, that Marie Antoinette was very keen on white or white ish walls, muslin, curtains. 198 00:22:43,720 --> 00:22:51,820 The whole space would have been very light and airy. We often forget that the word circuit there contains saké or secret. 199 00:22:51,820 --> 00:22:59,680 And in the 18th century, quite often circuit there were used for locking up things which you didn't necessarily want everybody to discover. 200 00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:06,880 And some of them had their own secret bits. So can you tell us about what there is in this piece of furniture, Helen? 201 00:23:06,880 --> 00:23:14,380 Well, as with many of reasoners full front desks, the Central Space here actually reveals a door. 202 00:23:14,380 --> 00:23:19,300 And if you press down on it, it will then open up and you find another. 203 00:23:19,300 --> 00:23:24,580 Well, you could easily store pieces of paper there, little Billy do. 204 00:23:24,580 --> 00:23:28,720 But there are also more secretly drawers on either side. 205 00:23:28,720 --> 00:23:35,380 And if we open one of those, you can see very hidden from anybody who casually glanced at this desk. 206 00:23:35,380 --> 00:23:42,850 You wouldn't see the drawers. However, this model with these secret drawers and the central well is quite common. 207 00:23:42,850 --> 00:23:48,850 And so I'm not so sure they were actually secret, more than private to get into these drawers. 208 00:23:48,850 --> 00:23:56,550 You really have to have access to the full front desk. You have to have time to open the hidden door and then pull out the drawers. 209 00:23:56,550 --> 00:24:01,870 So I think it's a privacy thing, perhaps more than a secrecy thing. 210 00:24:01,870 --> 00:24:06,040 So, Helen, you're showing me a rather splendid key, which is in two parts. 211 00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:09,820 There's the sort of mechanism, bit of the key and then the top it. 212 00:24:09,820 --> 00:24:14,050 What we would use to attach it to a keyring looks rather beautiful. 213 00:24:14,050 --> 00:24:18,460 This would have opened still does open the strong box below. 214 00:24:18,460 --> 00:24:28,870 So the secretary above it has the six drawers and the pigeonholes and below it has spaces, four shelves and indeed a strong box. 215 00:24:28,870 --> 00:24:30,530 And there's been a smaller key. 216 00:24:30,530 --> 00:24:38,720 Open the strong box, so the full front desk would have all your writing paraphernalia, your pieces of paper, your wax and so on. 217 00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:45,320 And then the strong box would be where you would hide the letters you got, which maybe contains secrets which you didn't want people to stumble on. 218 00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:50,390 Would that be right? Maybe that's the case. Perhaps they included precious objects. 219 00:24:50,390 --> 00:25:01,100 One doesn't know. After the revolution in 1793, the revolutionaries wanted to look inside Louis the sixteenth desk. 220 00:25:01,100 --> 00:25:08,210 They didn't have the key. So they pulled the back off the desk to find the secrets that the former king had in his desk. 221 00:25:08,210 --> 00:25:14,090 Much to their disappointment. There was simply a rooming list for VLSI. 222 00:25:14,090 --> 00:25:16,760 Rooming lists were very important to VSI. 223 00:25:16,760 --> 00:25:23,000 It was a question of knowing how close to the king or queen you could be, whether or not there was a window or a fireplace. 224 00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:41,020 There is a lot of lobbying to get the room you want. So here you can see we open the doors. 225 00:25:41,020 --> 00:25:49,000 Double doors, and we have one shelf to pigeonholes and what looks like a drawer, but actually is not a drawer. 226 00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:58,120 It is a drop front. Another drop front. And this will open the strongbox. 227 00:25:58,120 --> 00:26:03,640 It's missing its interior metal lining or sometimes the lead box. 228 00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:10,780 But you can see the space where it could have been positioned. And one of the things we can also see is the colour of the wood. 229 00:26:10,780 --> 00:26:15,010 Isn't that magnificent? It's absolutely extraordinary because it looks almost as if it's striped. 230 00:26:15,010 --> 00:26:18,550 That's the effect. We've lost so much over the years. 231 00:26:18,550 --> 00:26:27,780 The entire piece of furniture would have sung in a way that we don't see it now. 232 00:26:27,780 --> 00:26:33,270 Along with the fall front desk delivered to Mario, Internet was also a chest of drawers. 233 00:26:33,270 --> 00:26:39,420 This was a very common combination to have a chest of drawers and a full front desk and sometimes a corner cupboard. 234 00:26:39,420 --> 00:26:48,270 And this chest of drawers, when it was delivered by John Henry Reasoner, came with the note that it was a new model. 235 00:26:48,270 --> 00:26:53,850 And I think what he was referring to in his note is the bronzes, because the guilt wrong's is on this. 236 00:26:53,850 --> 00:26:58,710 Chest drawers are completely different from earlier pieces delivered to the royal family. 237 00:26:58,710 --> 00:27:02,340 They are much lighter in style. They're much freer. 238 00:27:02,340 --> 00:27:09,150 They're wonderful floral wreaths. It's a model that Reasoner went on to deliver again and again. 239 00:27:09,150 --> 00:27:16,800 And what's particularly lovely is that in the centre of the freeze, we have the initials M a for Marie Antoinette. 240 00:27:16,800 --> 00:27:24,990 And that, of course, is the queen cipher denoting a very special piece of furniture made specifically for the queen in her private study. 241 00:27:24,990 --> 00:27:29,550 This medallion is of marquetry would marquetry. The colours have indeed faded. 242 00:27:29,550 --> 00:27:38,640 You can still see a delicate bit of blue over cornflowers were, but it would have been much, much brighter before, although I think restrained. 243 00:27:38,640 --> 00:27:45,210 I don't think they would have been livid colours. We know that the background, for example, to the trophy was a light blue. 244 00:27:45,210 --> 00:27:51,210 So very delicate colour, like a watercolour. I suspect the trophy was not random. 245 00:27:51,210 --> 00:27:52,890 It matched. Absolutely. 246 00:27:52,890 --> 00:28:02,940 One of the embroidered trophies on the silk on her walls, the walls of this room were covered in white silk, which had a plea kaid onto it. 247 00:28:02,940 --> 00:28:12,690 Medallions of pastoral or musical attributes to the whole room would have come together with his most incredible unified way. 248 00:28:12,690 --> 00:28:21,640 Your furniture reflecting your wool silks was. 249 00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:28,880 Ross. This is a very strange object, Helen. 250 00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:35,120 What you are looking at is a piece of neo classical, decorative art par excellence. 251 00:28:35,120 --> 00:28:43,340 It is in the shape of a tripod with these three long, thin legs going down to the hooves at the bottom. 252 00:28:43,340 --> 00:28:53,090 And then at the top of the legs are these three satyrs masks linked together by these garlands of very luscious grapes hanging on vines. 253 00:28:53,090 --> 00:29:00,230 And this very beautiful red and grey Jasper Ball with a guilt Ron's liner. 254 00:29:00,230 --> 00:29:04,710 It was for burning pastilles to scent the room. 255 00:29:04,710 --> 00:29:11,780 Behold PAFA. I think, in fact, its function is totally secondary to its use for display. 256 00:29:11,780 --> 00:29:16,280 Its owner, the man who commissioned it, was the Duke. Do more. Who is the Premier? 257 00:29:16,280 --> 00:29:24,710 Jonte on to the king. Dumont was renowned as a great collector of decorative art, but particularly of hard stones. 258 00:29:24,710 --> 00:29:29,490 There was a real passion for the hard stones of antiquity. 259 00:29:29,490 --> 00:29:37,580 Porphyry is Jaspers the stones with which Rome was so full in the 17th 70s. 260 00:29:37,580 --> 00:29:43,610 1780 is a number of architects and agents brought back these hard stones from 261 00:29:43,610 --> 00:29:49,370 Rome and they were cut into beautiful objects and mounted in gilt bronze, 262 00:29:49,370 --> 00:29:53,450 often as very much French 18th century decorative art. 263 00:29:53,450 --> 00:29:58,190 But alluding to classical antiquity, the gilt bronze is by pure Gutierrez, 264 00:29:58,190 --> 00:30:03,710 who was without doubt the most exceptional gilt bronzy of the late 18th century. 265 00:30:03,710 --> 00:30:11,300 If you look closely at the satta heads, you can see the life that he has managed to get into their faces. 266 00:30:11,300 --> 00:30:15,380 And the bunches of grapes look, as ever, just about to fall off the branch. 267 00:30:15,380 --> 00:30:26,750 It's the most amazing piece of bronze work. It was so amazing that when it was sold after the Duke Dumond's death in 1782, Marie Antoinette bought it. 268 00:30:26,750 --> 00:30:35,860 She paid 12000 thousand leave for this object, which was the most expensive item in his sale, and she kept it in her cabin, a dilemma. 269 00:30:35,860 --> 00:30:43,040 Yen had VSI, which was another of her, very, very private and totally beautiful little spaces. 270 00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:53,270 One of the things which strikes me about this object and about a lot of 18th century furniture is the fact that different skills are used. 271 00:30:53,270 --> 00:30:57,320 We have hard stone here as well as the gilt bronze. 272 00:30:57,320 --> 00:31:04,130 We've seen furniture with wood veneer and then bronze plaques, for instance. 273 00:31:04,130 --> 00:31:12,260 Some of them have served her porcelain plaques. So is this notion of having composite objects or composite pieces of furniture? 274 00:31:12,260 --> 00:31:22,010 One of the characteristics of the style which my opponent appreciated, she certainly appreciated very precious objects and very precious finishes. 275 00:31:22,010 --> 00:31:29,270 So that would include gold. It would include lacquer, hard stones, mother of pearl. 276 00:31:29,270 --> 00:31:31,310 These wonderful different objects. 277 00:31:31,310 --> 00:31:40,850 And because of the gill system in France, it was very difficult for one maker to produce things with all these different materials. 278 00:31:40,850 --> 00:31:45,710 And so very often they would have been assembled really by a maker. 279 00:31:45,710 --> 00:31:51,380 And sometimes that maker gets the credit. So with this perfume burner, we say it's by pure Goodyear. 280 00:31:51,380 --> 00:31:56,670 Well, in fact, the hard stone, the Jasper was incredibly difficult to cut. 281 00:31:56,670 --> 00:32:01,940 Manuel Antonio Boccardi probably did it and he gets no credit at all. 282 00:32:01,940 --> 00:32:10,820 This is the clock you just heard striking a beautiful gilt, bronze and enamel clock, which is very similar to one that Louis the 16th had. 283 00:32:10,820 --> 00:32:24,740 But unfortunately, we can't trace a particular royal provenance to this clock. 284 00:32:24,740 --> 00:32:31,280 Vault to the as if federal seat of Orhan Hover knowledge of pretty adnam all this to do land. 285 00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:36,410 Why do you ran down your demotion once I could get to my prayers. 286 00:32:36,410 --> 00:32:40,700 Nor do Zimm that are hyperbolic. Hunanese Ebru DL do matter. 287 00:32:40,700 --> 00:32:49,990 It gets colder. Hottovy Israel's Shiva. And then there's a list, a list of all the things which you could buy. 288 00:32:49,990 --> 00:32:56,890 They include some very mundane things, kitchen equipment, but also footway. 289 00:32:56,890 --> 00:33:03,140 You cannot be possibly some of the finer pieces of furniture in public collections like this one. 290 00:33:03,140 --> 00:33:08,280 And where was the sale to take place or see devotion to the Web site? 291 00:33:08,280 --> 00:33:11,930 This is the sale of martinets effects. 292 00:33:11,930 --> 00:33:21,540 The pretty clear effects on the 25th of August 1793, the 25th of August was a very important day in RCR, his home terms. 293 00:33:21,540 --> 00:33:28,290 The 25th of August is the fifth day of sun. So the first day of the king of France. 294 00:33:28,290 --> 00:33:32,940 It was the former National Day, in a sense, a day of rejoicing. 295 00:33:32,940 --> 00:33:39,450 And what of the revolutionary is done on the 25th of August? Well, obviously, it's no longer a feast day. 296 00:33:39,450 --> 00:33:45,690 They've organised a sale of Mong Antoinette's private furniture and effects. 297 00:33:45,690 --> 00:33:51,600 There's obviously more than a coincidence, a desire to mark the fact that this is a new era. 298 00:33:51,600 --> 00:33:57,900 There will be no more kings and queens, no more saints, as a very important note for the Wallace collection. 299 00:33:57,900 --> 00:34:03,250 It says NDB Limburg, little acid of on Mr. Seville Tosspot. 300 00:34:03,250 --> 00:34:12,630 There's a little hongzhi on Knigge Zombies. The two are inviting international bidders to take part in the sale. 301 00:34:12,630 --> 00:34:22,060 Do we know how we go from the announcement of the sale to this room in the Wallace collection in which some of the objects from the party, 302 00:34:22,060 --> 00:34:27,210 yanno, have actually arrived? Well, we go via several intermediaries. 303 00:34:27,210 --> 00:34:35,510 It did not happen straight away. I think the point you made about the tax is so interesting on exempt Zoolander two DWA, 304 00:34:35,510 --> 00:34:41,040 they positively wanted foreigners to buy this furniture and other effects. 305 00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:44,820 And that's because there was so much of it coming onto the market. 306 00:34:44,820 --> 00:34:55,830 The Putih travell is a very small palace. If you like a small chateau, just think of what was coming out of the palaces of VLSI, of sand cloo of Mali. 307 00:34:55,830 --> 00:34:58,230 And so they wanted foreigners to come. 308 00:34:58,230 --> 00:35:09,030 We find actually that much of this furniture is being sold to dealers in Germany or in Holland and also in Britain. 309 00:35:09,030 --> 00:35:16,950 But it's really in the early eighteen hundreds that the market in Britain opens up fully French decorative art, 310 00:35:16,950 --> 00:35:23,080 second hand French decorative art, because don't forget, that's what we're talking about, becomes something desirable. 311 00:35:23,080 --> 00:35:32,850 It's what people want. For example, we do not know that any British buyer commissioned anything from Reasoner during his lifetime. 312 00:35:32,850 --> 00:35:41,340 But by 1820, Reasoners name was synonymous with all that was wonderful about French furniture in Britain. 313 00:35:41,340 --> 00:35:47,310 This advertisement for the sale signed by the Commissaire after a colossal mess your. 314 00:35:47,310 --> 00:35:56,850 So they're doing this on state business and they're called Dulac Dellacqua and Rousay de la Quark, which of course is a hugely important name in art. 315 00:35:56,850 --> 00:36:05,940 Absolutely. Eugen Dellacqua, the famous artist to whom I think you're referring, was Shiell de la Quas son. 316 00:36:05,940 --> 00:36:11,010 But less well-known than that is that Charlotte Eloqua was Reasoners son in law. 317 00:36:11,010 --> 00:36:16,590 So there's this wonderful connexion in the artistic world of Paris of the late 18th century, 318 00:36:16,590 --> 00:36:21,270 early 19th century, in ways that we have sometimes forgotten. 319 00:36:21,270 --> 00:36:30,420 Reasoner participated in some of these sales and bought back some of the furniture that he had originally sold to the royal wardrobe, 320 00:36:30,420 --> 00:36:37,890 paying sometimes quite high prices. But he obviously thought that the market would go up and he would be able to sell them on. 321 00:36:37,890 --> 00:36:49,830 But in fact, evidence would suggest that he had trouble selling things on. 322 00:36:49,830 --> 00:36:59,990 He finally said his off season. 323 00:36:59,990 --> 00:37:03,740 Miniatures are much appreciated in 18th century France. 324 00:37:03,740 --> 00:37:11,090 And you have here a miniature by Jimal, one of my Ultranet proteges, and it shows a small child. 325 00:37:11,090 --> 00:37:16,730 It's the portrait of the duffer Marie Antoinette encouraged do more. 326 00:37:16,730 --> 00:37:23,870 And he painted several versions of the dofor and of other members of Maranto and its family before the revolution. 327 00:37:23,870 --> 00:37:33,140 This is interesting as it is a posthumous portrait of the dofor who then in royalist circles was of course known as Louis the 17th, 328 00:37:33,140 --> 00:37:38,780 although he had died in the Tomcat when the restoration happened. 329 00:37:38,780 --> 00:37:41,900 These little miniatures became very popular again, 330 00:37:41,900 --> 00:37:50,690 miniatures of Marie Antoinette and her family and Domhnall carried on until he died in the early 1830, is producing such miniatures. 331 00:37:50,690 --> 00:37:59,810 This appears to have been an earlier date, perhaps the late 17 nineties, but it is in a frame which very much celebrates the restoration. 332 00:37:59,810 --> 00:38:10,310 You can see the circular gilt bronze frame is studded with the fleur de lis and with two lily branches at the top representing the lilies of France. 333 00:38:10,310 --> 00:38:18,470 But wood is rather tragic, is on the reverse. As you can see, we have a broken lily branch in gilt bronze. 334 00:38:18,470 --> 00:38:25,270 It's such a sad reminder of the fate of this poor boy in the Tom. 335 00:38:25,270 --> 00:38:35,180 It's also something which illustrates the way in which the symbol of the lily in particular was used during the Assad regime. 336 00:38:35,180 --> 00:38:44,630 And then subsequently as an illustration of the French royal family, the lilies of the royal family were on the French flag and the Assad regime. 337 00:38:44,630 --> 00:38:48,110 It was a white flag with gilt lilies on it and the Flodden. 338 00:38:48,110 --> 00:39:26,070 This is very much for the French, even nowadays immediately associated with the monarchy. 339 00:39:26,070 --> 00:39:29,250 You've been listening to In the footsteps of My Ultranet with me, 340 00:39:29,250 --> 00:39:34,440 Katrina Seth Marshall Foss, professor of French literature at the University of Oxford. 341 00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:44,592 I hope you enjoyed our visit to the Wallace collection. And you will join us next time when we'll be going to Western Manor in Buckinghamshire.