A LOUIS XVI MAHOGANY FOUR-TIER ETAGERE late 18th century, at...

Hammer

£1,300

A LOUIS XVI MAHOGANY FOUR-TIER ETAGERE late 18th century, attributed to Pierre-Francois Guignard (1740-1794)
The rectangular top with slightly raised solid gallery, between four turned tapering uprights with spirally-reeded cone finials, each end with three spindles, on brass caps, 140cm high x 132cm wide x 39cm deep

Provenance: Daisy Fellowes, rue de Lille, Paris and by descent to her daughter: Comtesse Alexandre de Casteja; sold Couturier-Nicolay, Paris, 22 November 1976, lot 106.

Daisy Fellowes (1890-1962) was the daughter of the Duke of Descazes and Gluecksburg and Isabelle-Blanche Singer, heiress to the Singer industrial fortune. She married the Prince de Broglie in Paris in 1910 and bore three daughters, the eldest, Emmeline (1911-1986), married Marie Alexandre, Comte de Casteja (1907-1983) in 1932 to whom this etagere belonged. She spent five months in prison, accused of collaborating with the Nazis during the Second World War. She circulated in the beau monde of Paris during the interwar and postwar years and was close to Elsa Schiaparelli, Duff Cooper, with whom she had an affair, the Mitfords and Cecil Beaton, who captured her elegance and style on celluloid.