CIRCA 1775

Retailed by Charles-Reymond Granchez, one of the best marchands-merciers of Paris during the second half of the eighteenth century, this rafraîchissoir is a rare surviving example of luxury toleware from the late 1700s. Granchez, bijoutier to Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, established his shop Au Petit Dunkerque on the quai Conti in 1767. The store was a treasure-trove of the most luxurious and curious objects and its most famous clients included Marie Antoinette, who personally visited Au Petit Dankerque in 1773, see Carolyn Sargentson, Merchants and Luxury Markets, Frome, Somerset, 1996, p. 123. Au Petit Dunkerque survived the collapse of the Ancien Régime and continued to flourished under the reign of Louis-Philippe and beyond. It was a sanctuary of Parisian luxury and immortalized in the works of Balzac and Proust. An everyday and mundane object executed with great care and utmost artistry, this rafraîchissoir is a product typical of this venerated Parisian institution. The decoration of this wine cooler very much reflects the taste of the day with its reserves decorated in the manner of the most popular painters of the time, most particularly Fragonard.
The vernis used for the decoration of this rafraîchissoir is imitating lacquer, making this lot even more fashionable and luxurious. This type of vernis decoration on tôle was developed and perfected by the painter Michel-Nicolas Gosse who was recognized for his invention by the Académie Royale des Sciences in 1760 and was given the permission to establish the Manufacture Royale de Vernis Façon de la Chine. In 1767, the same year Au Petit Dunkerque opened its doors, Gosse’s widow and son-in-law received the royal patent to establish the workshop called Manufacture Veuve Gosse et François Samousseau producing vernis, lacquer and japanned objectc. Other entrepreneurs followed and in 1770 the Manufacture de la Petit Pologne opened its doors first on the boulevard du Temple before finally settling on the rue des Marais, specializing in imitation Japanese lacquer, among other things. The Manufacture de la Petit Pologne was particularly well known for its vernis houseware, and the atelier produced seaux, trays, rafraîchissoirs and other types of vessels in great varieties. Some workshops also produced vernis panels that were to be mounted on furniture, such as a secrétaire à cylindre with white and polychrome panels by Saunier sold Sotheby’s, London, 24 November 1978, lot 184; a gueridon with pink plaques sold Christie’s, Monaco, 16 June 1990, lot 215; and most recently a pair of tables de café with imitation Japanese lacquer inlay by Weisweiler, sold Christie’s, New York, 10 June 2021, lot 48. For more on the production and trade of tôle in Paris in the eighteenth century, see Thibaut Wolvesperges, "Les Manufactures de Tôle Vernie à Paris vers 1760-1770," Objets D'Art: Mélanges en l'honneur de Daniel Alcouffe, Dijon, 2004, pp. 272-279.
It cannot be determined with certainty which workshop produced the panels used on the abovementioned pieces of furniture or who produced this rafraîchissoir. A commode by René Dubois in Waddesdon manor decorated with panels painted in the manner of Vernet also bears a label by Au Petit Dunkerque, suggesting that Granchez was heavily involved in the commissioning and sale of tôle and vernis objects. Granchez is known to have commissioned plaques and various toleware from the Manufacture de la Petit Pologne, which produced very high quality vernis domestic objects, as noted above. Granchez’s main competitor in the field was Madame Blakey, whose Magasin Anglais offered a similar array of products, however based on contemporaneous reports and inventory listings, it has been suggested that the ultimate destination for objects du luxe in vernis was the Petit Dankerque.
In its shape, scheme and quality of decoration, as well as the high-quality ormolu mounts of very similar design, which were most likely executed by a leading Parisian bronzier of the time, this rafraîchissoir is most closely related to vernis-decorated tôle bain de pied formerly in the Nemours-Tuffier collection. This very similar piece was sold in the Revolutionary salesand described as having originally been used at the Petit Trianon by Marie Antoinette, who is known to have ordered a pair of bains de pied from Bonnefoy Du Plan in 1787, see Jacques Charles, ed., De Versailles à Paris: le Destin des Collections Royales, Paris, 1989, p. 274, no. 165.