Page 15 - Mounted Oriental Porcelain, The Getty Museum

mounts. These men belonged to one of the city's oldest and doreurs to create the mounts, which the marchands-
trade guilds, whose history dates back to the twelfth cen- merders probably designed. 11 We may note in passing
tury, and were known as marchands-merders. that from time to time lacquer, generally Japanese lac-
The word marchand-merder is untranslatable, for quer bowls, boxes, etc., was also mounted. 12
the profession itself did not exist either in England or in We are fortunate that the Livre-journal, or sales
any country other than France. Literally translated, the ledger, of the marchand-merder Lazare Duvaux has sur-
13
term is tautological; it means "merchant-merchant," vived. It covers the decade of 1748 to 1758, the peak
which does not tell us very much. The marchands- years of the fashion for mounted oriental porcelain. Lit-
merders combined the roles of antique dealer, jeweler, erally hundreds of examples of mounted porcelain, both
frame maker, supplier of light fittings and hearth furni- European and oriental, passed through Duvaux's hands
ture, dealer in new and old furniture, and interior decora- during this period. He was an important figure in the
7
tor. They often were picture dealers as well. They created commerce in such things, a marchand suivant la Cour
nothing themselves but employed other craftsmen to (the equivalent of a tradesman "by Royal Appointment"
work on their ideas and their designs. Diderot called them in London today), and all the most important figures in
faiseurs de rien, marchands de tout. As inspirers of taste Parisian society came to his shop, Au Chagrin de Tur-
and fashion, their role was to provide the world of fash- quie, in the fashionable rue Saint-Honore. The marquise
ion with the chic and the up-to-date, what the English of de Pompadour, one of Duvaux's most regular clients,
the day called "kickshaws." A contemporary, writing of purchased more than one hundred and fifty pieces of
the marchand-merder Hebert, wittily remarked, "II fait mounted oriental porcelain from him during the period
en France ce que les Frangais font en Amerique; il donne covered by the Livre-journal. Louis xv patronized Du-
des coliftchets pour des lingots d'or." 8 vaux's shop; so did the queen. Many of the most impor-
To embody their ideas and designs, the marchands- tant members of the court of Versailles were his clients,
merders employed furniture makers (ebenistes], bronze as were foreign royalty and visiting Englishmen and, in
casters (fondeurs], gilders (doreurs], and so on. They fact, the entire European world of fashion; and most of
themselves merely marketed the results. The marchands- them bought mounted porcelains.
merders were exceedingly ingenious in devising ways of The Livre-journal is a mine of information on the
adapting rare and exotic materials, especially those from subject of mounted porcelain, as shown in the quota-
the Far East, to the decoration of the houses of the rich. tions in this catalogue. The ledger describes a wide vari-
It was the marchands-merders who first thought of cut- ety of types of mounted porcelain and their prices, as
ting up lacquer screens and cabinets from the Orient and well as the price of unmounted porcelain and the cost
veneering panels from them onto furniture of purely Eu- of the mounts. From this book we learn who collected
ropean design. It was they too who purchased writing mounted porcelain (practically every one of Duvaux's
boxes and other items of Japanese lacquer found on the clients), and occasionally even the names of the crafts-
Dutch market and employed goldsmiths like Ducrollay men who actually made the mounts (see p. 16).
to cut them up and mount the fragments as tabatieres, Ingenious and inventive as the marchands-merders
9
bonbonnieres, cartes de visite, etuis, navettes, and other were, they did not invent the idea of setting oriental
expensive toys that formed so essential a part of the porcelain in metal mounts of European design. They
social intercourse of Parisian society of the day. The simply developed this practice and gave it fresh life.
marchands-merders also encouraged the brothers Mar- Emphasizing the rarity (and sometimes the beauty) of
tin to devise what was by far the most successful Euro- small and exotic objects by mounting them in precious
pean attempt to imitate oriental lacquer, a type of very or semiprecious metals has a very long history. Certain
hard varnish patented in 1744 and known by the name great cathedral treasuries included pieces of this kind,
vernis Martin, after its inventors. Even so essentially but none have come down to us; we know them only
French a device as the practice of mounting wooden fur- from inventory descriptions. The greatest surviving
niture with gaily colored plaques of Sevres porcelain was assemblage of this type is in the Treasury of St. Mark's in
the result of the marchands-merders' interest in the use Venice, where the visitor can still see bowls and goblets
of oriental materials. The earliest experiments in this of classical and Byzantine origin that were mounted in
field were made with plaques of Sevres porcelain imitat- gold, silver, and silver-gilt, partly to emphasize their rar-
ing Cantonese enamels. 10 As far as mounted porcelain ity but also to adapt them for ecclesiastical use as chal-
was concerned, these middlemen bought the porcelain ices, patens, and so on. Amongst them one bowl of
(mostly on the Dutch market) and employed fondeurs opaque green glass, mounted with silver-gilt and set

2 I N T R O D U C T I O N