Object Type
This print is an etching. The action of acid was used to make a pattern of grooves on a copper printing plate. The grooves were then filled with ink and the image was transferred onto a blank sheet of paper.
Design
The concept of a crayfish, reeds and a shell-like motif was copied from a design by Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier that was published in 1734 in a collection of designs entitled Livre de Légumes.
Prints like this, with naturalistic plants and animals arranged ornamentally, had a strong influence on British Rococo porcelain and silver design. In fact, a silver salt cellar in the form of a crayfish, probably based on this print, was produced in 1742-1743 by the silversmith, designer and porcelain manufacturer Nicolas Sprimont. The design of the salt cellar was then repeated in porcelain at Sprimont's Chelsea porcelain factory (see museum no. C.73-1938).
People
Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier was a versatile and inventive designer, producing designs for a wide range of items, from table-wares and clocks to firework displays and buildings. He is an important figure in the history of the Rococo style, introducing asymmetry and picturesque irregularity through designs such as this.
Physical description
Engravings and etchings, designs for furniture
Place of Origin
Paris, France (printed)
Date
1801 (printed)
Artist/maker
Jean-Baptiste-Claude Chatelain, born 1710 - died 1758 (probably, etcher)
Meissonnier, Juste-Aurèle, born 1695 - died 1750 (after, designer)
Materials and Techniques
Engraving and etching
Dimensions
height: 45 cm, width: 32 cm
Object history note
Probably etched in London by Jean-Baptiste Chatelain (probably born in London, 1710, died in London, 1758)
after Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier (born in Turin, Italy, 1695, died in Paris, 1750)
Descriptive line
Plate from a volume of interior decorations, one of 73 bound together, Paris, 1801.
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Lambert, Susan (ed.) Pattern & Design: Designs for the Decorative Arts 1480-1980 London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983
The full text of the entry is as follows:
'2.7 Charles Percier (1764-1834) and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine (1762-1853)
Plates 6 and 19 from Recueil de décorations intérieurs, comprenant tout ce qui a rapport à l'ameublement, comme vases, trépieds candélabres... etc, including 73 etched and engraved plates. First published Paris, 1801. Later editions 1812, 1827 and 1843.
Etching and engraving. Size of volume 45 x 32 cm
29564.10; 29564.16
Percier and Fontaine stated in the introduction that their aim was not to provide the public with models to imitate: 'Our ambition would be satisfied if we could flatter ourselves to have collaborated to spread and to uphold in a matter as variable, as swayed by changes of opinion and of whim, the principles of taste that we have drawn from antiquity, and which we believe linked, although by a scarcely visible chain, to general rules of truth, simplicity and beauty...'.
One of these rules concerned the suitability of a piece of furniture for its use: 'Among all the forms of a chair, there are some which are dictated by the shape of our body, by the demands of necessity or of comfort ... What is there that art could add? It should purify the forms dictated by convenience and combine them with the simplest outlines, giving rise from those natural conditions to ornamental motifs which would be adapted to the basic form without ever disguising nature'. They went on to say how often they have seen ornament applied to different parts of furniture so that it took the place of the part itself. But the furniture they drew is to our present view so encrusted with ornament and its forms so twisted by fashionable configurations that it belies their fastidious strictures. Concepts of purified form, simple outline and the adaptation of ornament to use have substantially changed in the intervening 170 years or so since the book was published.
SL'
Labels and date
British Galleries:
Jean-Baptiste Chatelain copied this design from one published in 1734 by Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier, a leading French Rococo designer and goldsmith. Meissonnier's print was probably the design source for Chelsea's crayfish salt cellars, one of which is exhibited below. [27/03/2003]
Techniques
Engraving; Etching
Subjects depicted
Engravings; Designs; Furniture; Regency
Categories
Ornament prints
Collection code
PDP
