Mémoire des Modéles de Bronze, Cizelure Et Dorure de Porcelaines faites pour Le Service de Madame La Duchesse de Mazarin.
Paris, 1789.
Folio (366 x 250 mm.). Contemporary pagination: 24p. In a single cursive hand, ruled in pencil. Subscribed by Gouthière and authenticated by É. Martincourt and F. Rémond.
Sewn through the spine with two pink silk ties (one tie broken).
Among the most skilled decorative artists of his time, Gouthière “mastered the art of chasing and gilding on metal to a level previously unseen in France” (Baulez). He (1732-1813) perfected and popularized matte gilding and, among other projects, assisted in the decoration of Marie Antoinette’s apartments at Fontainebleau and Versailles.
When Louise-Jeanne de Durfort, duchess of Mazarin (1735-81) died, she owed him over eighty-two thousand livres on this invoice. Gouthière sued. In 1789, he and Mazarin’s executors hired bronze-gilders Étienne Martincourt (1727-96) and François Rémond (1745/7-1812) to appraise the unpaid work in the duchess’ Paris townhouse.
To settle the matter, a legal scribe described each piece and itemized its cost, including unfinished works and the expenses Gouthière incurred preparing models and collaborating with architect F.-J. Bélanger (1744-1818), stone masons, founders, turners and a clockmaker. Martincourt recorded each item’s appraised value, placed his paraph at the bottom of every page and signed the document, as did Rémond. They reduced the amount owed by some twenty thousand livres. This proved insufficient to save the artist from insolvency and decades of poverty.
In good condition (minor stains, fore-edge of the first leaf slightly defective with loss of a few letters). Eugène Véron published the Mémoire in L’Art (1883-4).
¶Vignon and Baulez, Pierre Gouthière: Virtuoso Gilder at the French Court. Exhibition 16.XI.2016-19.II.2017 (2016) pp. 57-61 & 346-53 and nos. 22, 26, 35, 39 & 49; Robiquet, Vie et Œuvre de Pierre Gouthière 58 & 123-4.
Price: $7,500.00