Plate with an allegory of the month of April, Pierre Reymond (1513- circa 1584), French, Limoges, circa 1568-1580. Photo Sotheby's

with a white label to the reverse printed and inscribed: Einsatzstab RR / MA [crossed out] R / Nr. 2422 [crossed out] 1336 b, monogrammed: PR and entitled : AVRIL, painted enamel on copper, with gilding, 19.8cm., 7¾in. diameter. Estimate 40,000 — 60,000 GBP

Provenance: Maurice de Rothschild, Paris (1881-1957);
illegally confiscated by Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg (1893-1946) for Germany, 19 September 1942;
Lager Peter, Altaussee, Austria, inv. no. R 1336 b;
repatriated and returned to the Rothschild family, 19 September 1946;
and thence by descent;
with Galerie J. Kugel, Paris, 2008;
private collection, London

Note: Pierre Reymond was one of the foremost enamelers active in Limoges in the mid to late 16th century. He is known chiefly for his enamels in grisaille, which comprise the majority of his oeuvre. Polychromed enamels by Pierre Reymond, such as the present dish, are, in contrast, very rare. The present enamel is painted after an engraving by Étienne Delaune, which comes from a series entitled The Labours of the Months, published in 1568 (a complete set is held in the British Museum, inv. no. Gg,4D.17-28). It would have once comprised part of a luxuriant service of calendar plates, undoubtedly for a wealthy patron.

Grisaille enamels by Pierre Reymond after Delaune's 1568 print series can be found in several major museums, including: a now incomplete service in the Musée du Louvre (inv. nos. N 1290 to N 1298); an incomplete set in the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin (inv. nos. K 5006- K 5016); and three plates in the Petit Palais, Paris (inv. nos. PPO02417-1 to PPO02417-3). Individual plates from a famous service with the arms of Chaspoux de Verneuil (Higgot, op. cit., p. 263, n. 16) are also known. Pierre Reymond also produced services of calendar plates using two other models (Higgot, op. cit., p. 260-261). However, in contrast, Verdier records only a handful of polychromed enamel plates and plaques (after all three models) by Reymond in public and private collections (Verdier, op. cit., p. 253). The present plate comes from a set from which only three further plates are known to survive, all with the same Rothschild provenance.

The superlative quality of the present plate confirms that it is the work of Pierre Reymond himself. The sharpness of the central scene, with its figures subtly picked out with dark outlines, and the delicacy of the gilding, compares only with the finest works by the artist. This high quality enameling is offset by the wonderful azure blue ground, which appears very seldom in Reymond's output. The salmon-pink fleshtones of the grotesque ornamentation, coupled with whites and greys, is characteristic of Reymond's work, whilst the overall design on the reverse is replicated in his series of plates with the months in the Louvre (inv. nos. N1290 to N1298).

RELATED LITERATURE: S. Baratte, Les émaux peints de Limoges, cat. Musée du Louvre, Paris, 2000, pp. 222-235; V. Notin, La rencontre des Héros, cat. Musée municipal de l'évêché, Limoges, pp. 176-178, nos. 44-46; S. Higgot, Catalogue of Glass and Limoges Painted Enamels, cat. Wallace Collection, London, no. 72, pp. 258-263

Sotheby's. Old Master Sculpture and Works of Art, London | 10 Jul 2014 - http://www.sothebys.com/