Ruzhnikov - Silver for the Kings

Ruzhnikov Fine art & antiques

Silver for t he Kings

ODIOT Resplendent & Dazzling 1

Special thanks to...

Photography: Karen Bengall Design: David Boyes Printing: C3 Imaging

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An important imperial five piece silver centerpiece and garniture

by Odiot, Paris 1878 The set is a wedding gift of François d'Orléans (18181900), Prince de Joinville, third son of Louis-Philippe I (1773-1850), King of France, to his granddaughter Princess Marie d'Orléans (1865-1909) in honor of her marriage on October 20, 1885 to Prince Valdemar of Denmark (1858-1939), the youngest son of King Christian IX of Denmark. The service was purchased for 40,293 French Francs from Odiot by François d'Orléans on 31 January, 1885.

This grandiose and lavish garniture was created by the famous French sculptor François Amroise Germain Gilbert (1816-1891). Works by Gilbert are in Palais de la Bourse, Palace of Justice, Palais Longchamp and Palace of the Pharo in Marceille as well as Cimetière du PèreLachaise, Church of the Holy Trinity, Musée d’Orsay in Paris, etc.

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Christian IX of Denmark with family in Fredensborg Palace, circa 1885, by Laurits Tuxen (1853-1927) House of Orléans

House of Glücksburg

Louis Philippe I (1773–1850)

Friedrich Wilhelm Paul Leopold (1785–1831)

Prince Ferdinand Philippe of Orléans (1810–1842)

Prince Robert, Duke of Chartres (1840–1910)

Princess Françoise of Orléans (1844–1925)

Princess Marie of Orléans (1865–1909)

Christian IX of Denmark (1818–1906)

Louise of Hesse-Kassel (1817–1898)

Prince Valdemar of Denmark (1858–1939)

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François d'Orléans (1818-1900) Prince de Joinville

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Louis-Philippe I (1773-1850) King of France

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Prince Robert (1840-1910) Duke of Chartres

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Princess Françoise of Orléans (1844–1925)

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Prince Valdemar of Denmark Prince Valdemar of Denmark was three times in the running for the crowns and thrones of two European countries. Instead of becoming a ruling monarch like his two brothers and his two nephews, he remained with the Danish navy. Valdemar’s three older sisters made advantageous marriages; Alexandra married the crown prince of the United Kingdom to become Queen Consort to King Edward VII, Dagmar married the Tsarevitch of Russia to become Empress Consort to Alexander III. She changed her name on marriage to Maria Feodorovna; and Thyra married Ernst August, Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, titular King of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick and Luneburg. Valdemar happily took on the usual career of all younger Danish princes and went into the navy.

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Prince Valdemar of Denmark (1858–1939)

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Princess Marie d'Orléans Marie was the eldest child of Robert, duke of Chartres, and his wife, Princess Françoise d'Orléans. Her father was the second son of Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans, and Duchess Helena of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Françoise was the daughter of François d'Orléans, prince de Joinville, and Princess Francisca of Brazil.

Born during the reign in France of her family's rival, Napoléon III, she grew up in England, where her family had moved in 1848. She moved to France with her family after the fall of Napoleon in 1871. She defined herself as "une bourgeoise".

After obtaining papal consent, Marie married Prince Valdemar of Denmark, the youngest son of King Christian IX of Denmark, on 20 October 1885 in a civil ceremony in Paris and again in a religious ceremony in the Château d'Eutwo days later. She remained a Roman Catholic, he a Lutheran. They adhered to the dynastic arrangement usually stipulated in the marriage contract in such circumstances: sons were to be raised in the faith of their father, daughters in that of their mother.

The couple took up residence at Bernstorff Palace outside Copenhagen, in which Valdemar had been born.

Princess Marie painted and photographed and was a student of Otto Bache and Frants Henningsen. She participated in the exhibitions at Charlottenborg in 1889, 1901 and 1902 and was a member of the Danish Arts Academy.

Princess Marie refused to obey the expectation on royal women to stay away from politics. In 1886, Valdemar declined the throne of Bulgaria with her consent. She belonged to the political left and participated in convincing the king to agree to the reforms of 1901, which led to an appointment of a Venstre government, and the de facto introduction of parliamentarism. She also saw to the interests of France: she was credited by the French press with having influenced the FrancoRussian alliance in 1894 and the peace in the French-German Colonial conflict over Morocco in 1905. She was a popular person in Denmark.

Marie's husband and three sons were in India en route to Siam when they received word that she had died at Bernstorff.

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Princess Marie of Orléans (1865–1909) 13

Illustration from The Art Journal, London, 1878, p.77. Le Nouveau Journal Republican, December 1878

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Maison Odiot While the Maison Odiot can trace its origins back to 1690, it was Jean-Baptiste-Claude Odiot, the grandson of the founder, Jean-Baptiste-Gaspard Odiot, who brought the firm to the attention of the world.

Born in 1763 and becoming a master in 1785, Odiot succeeded his father in the business, steadily building the firm's reputation, coming to a particular notice following the Exposition de l'industrie held in Paris in 1802. Following the bankruptcy, in 1809, of the celebrated neoclassical silversmith Henry Auguste, who at the time was the silversmith to Emperor Napoleon, Odiot was able to purchase many of his models and designs. Odiot, along with Martin-Guillaume Biennais, soon replaced Auguste as Emperor Napoleon's silversmiths ensuring the success of both firms.

Soon Odiot was receiving orders from the French court, including a service made for Napoleon's mother, styled 'Madame Mère' and as well as from across Europe and beyond. The Russian Imperial court's love affair with French silver, most famously realized in the service made for Catherine the Great from the Parisian silversmith Jacques Roettiers and his son Jacques-Nicolas Roettiers in 1770 and subsequently presented to her lover Count Gregory Orloff, continued with commissions from the Russian court to Odiot. Among these important commissions were a massive service for Countess Branicki, the niece of Gregory Potemkin and Count Nikolai Demidoff.

Odiot's work during this period is characterized by strong neoclassical forms, ornamented with cast figural elements, often attached not by the traditional soldering but with the use of bolts and rivets, a method he inherited from his collaboration with the bronzier Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843). Having survived the French Empire as well as the Bourbon monarchy, Jean-Baptiste-Claude Odiot retired in 1823 passing the business to his son Charles-Nicolas, who continued to build on the firms’ success.

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Franรงois Gilbert

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The firm of Odiot was closely associated with François Gilbert over a number of years and used many of his designs, especially for their most important commissions. A somewhat similar service is in the collection of the Musée de Compiegne, France.

The set consists of the main centerpiece with cast figures of Flora and Zephyr, reclining among putto, the two smaller centerpieces each with putto at play. All pieces are applied with the Royal arms of Denmark and France below cast crowns. Each thirteen-light candelabra applied with frolicking putto perched on the stems. The centerpieces marked on bases and further stamped 'ODIOT A PARIS', the candelabra also fully marked and numbered 5416, 5417, 5418, 5419 and 5420.

Dimensions The largest centerpiece is 96cm long, 64cm wide, 54cm high.

The two side pieces are 35cm wide, 35cm long, 31 cm high.

The candelabra are 98.5cm high 55cm diameter.

Weight The total weight 2,527 troy oz. (78,690. gramms).

The centrepiece and two side pieces weigh 1,419 troy oz. together.

The pair of candelabra weigh 1108 troy oz. together.

Literature 'Illustrated Catalogue of the Paris International Exhibition', The Art Journal, London, 1878, p.77.

Le Nouveau Journal Republican, December 1878.

Monde Illustre, December 1878.

J. B. Hawkins, Masterpieces of English and European Silver and Gold, Sydney, 1979, p. 118-125.

J. B. Hawkins, The Al Tajir Collection of Silver and Gold, London, 1983, pp. 197-203.

J.-M. Pinçon and O. Gaube du Gers, Odiot l'Orfévre, Paris, 1990, p. 188.

Exhibited Paris, Paris Universal Exhibition, 1878.

Sydney, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Masterpieces of English and European Silver and Gold, January, 1980, no. 45.

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Andre Ruzhnikov +44-7866-638-973 +1-917-244-3777 +7-905-715-5530 ruzhnikov.com e-mail: andre@ruzhnikov.com info@ruzhnikov.com 40

Andre Ruzhnikov +44-7866-638-973 +1-917-244-3777 +7-905-715-5530 ruzhnikov.com e-mail: andre@ruzhnikov.com info@ruzhnikov.com