Selections from the Decorative Arts in the J. Paul Getty Museum
Selections from the Decorative Arts in the J. Paul Getty Museum

Author: Gillian Wilson

Publisher: Getty Publications

Published: 1983

Total Pages: 118

ISBN-13: 089236050X

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J. Paul Getty began to collect French decorative arts in the 1930s and continued to do so until his death in 1976. The Museum’s collection has continued to grow since then at a rapid pace and contains over three hundred individual pieces at the time this book is published. This volume illustrates fifty of them. The selection represents a cross section of the collection, which covers the period from approximately 1660 to 1800. In the eighteenth century it became fashionable in Parisian society to decorate the interiors of houses with Far Eastern materials such as lacquer and porcelain. This taste was catered to by the marchands-merciers, members of a guild who combined the functions of the modern interior decorator, the antique dealer, and the picture dealer. These men devised highly ingenious settings for Far Eastern porcelains to adapt their exotic character to the French interiors of the period. Information about them and their clientele has been used in cataloguing the Getty Museum’s collection of mounted oriental porcelain, which is large and of high quality. This book is not a catalogue, nor is it a mere picture book or checklist. Each piece has been chosen because it represents a particular aspect of the crafts involved in the production of objects that were made by Parisian craftsmen for the crown, the nobility, and the rich bourgeoisie. The pieces are arranged in chronological order. Translations of the French archival extracts, an index, and a concise bibliography have been provided.

French Rococo Ébénisterie in the J. Paul Getty Museum
French Rococo Ébénisterie in the J. Paul Getty Museum

Author: Gillian Wilson

Publisher: J. Paul Getty Museum

Published: 2021-03-30

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781606066300

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The first comprehensive catalogue of the Getty Museum’s significant collection of French Rococo ébénisterie furniture. This catalogue focuses on French ébénisterie furniture in the Rococo style dating from 1735 to 1760. These splendid objects directly reflect the tastes of the Museum’s founder, J. Paul Getty, who started collecting in this area in 1938 and continued until his death in 1976. The Museum’s collection is particularly rich in examples created by the most talented cabinet masters then active in Paris, including Bernard van Risenburgh II (after 1696–ca. 1766), Jacques Dubois (1694–1763), and Jean-François Oeben (1721–1763). Working for members of the French royal family and aristocracy, these craftsmen excelled at producing veneered and marquetried pieces of furniture (tables, cabinets, and chests of drawers) fashionable for their lavish surfaces, refined gilt-bronze mounts, and elaborate design. These objects were renowned throughout Europe at a time when Paris was considered the capital of good taste. The entry on each work comprises both a curatorial section, with description and commentary, and a conservation report, with construction diagrams. An introduction by Anne-Lise Desmas traces the collection’s acquisition history, and two technical essays by Arlen Heginbotham present methodologies and findings on the analysis of gilt-bronze mounts and lacquer. The free online edition of this open-access publication is available at www.getty.edu/publications/rococo/ and includes zoomable, high-resolution photography. Also available are free PDF, EPUB, and Kindle/MOBI downloads of the book, and JPG downloads of the main catalogue images.

Mounted Oriental Porcelain in the J. Paul Getty Museum
Mounted Oriental Porcelain in the J. Paul Getty Museum

Author: Gillian Wilson

Publisher: Getty Publications

Published: 2000-03-16

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 0892365625

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The Getty Museum’s large and exceptional collection of oriental porcelain embellished with Parisian gilt bronze or silver is comprehensively illustrated in this revised catalogue. The European practice of mounting exotic objects such as oriental porcelain dates from the Middle Ages and found its height of expression during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when Chinese and Japanese porcelains reached the West in considerable quantities. To meet the growing taste for such objects in fashionable Parisian society, marchands-merciers—guild members who combined the functions of the modern interior decorator, antique dealer, and picture dealer—devised ingenious settings in silver and gilt bronze for oriental porcelains, adapting their exotic character to the French interiors of the period. With the publication of this catalogue, the beauty and rarity with which buyers of these pieces were so enamored is vividly brought to life.

Fragile Diplomacy
Fragile Diplomacy

Author: Maureen Cassidy-Geiger

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2007-01-01

Total Pages: 406

ISBN-13: 9780300126815

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While imported Chinese porcelain had become a valuable commodity in Europe in the seventeenth century, local attempts to produce porcelain long remained unsuccessful. At last the secret of hard-paste porcelain was uncovered, and in 1710 the first European porcelain was manufactured in Saxony. Meissen porcelain, still manufactured today, soon ranked in value with silver and gold. This thorough and lavishly illustrated volume explores the early years of Meissen porcelain and how the princes of Saxony came to use highly prized porcelain pieces as diplomatic gifts for presentation to foreign courts. An eminent team of international contributors examines the trade of Meissen with other nations, from England to Russia. They also investigate the cultural ambience of the Dresden Court, varying tastes of the markets, the wide range of porcelain objects, and their designers and makers. Individual chapters are devoted to gifts to Denmark, other German courts, the Holy Roman Empire, Italy, France, and other nations. For every Meissen collector or enthusiast, this book will be not only a treasured handbook but also a source of visual delight.

European Clocks in the J. Paul Getty Museum
European Clocks in the J. Paul Getty Museum

Author: Gillian Wilson

Publisher: Getty Publications

Published: 2013-08-15

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 0892362545

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Among the finest examples of European craftsmanship are the clocks produced for the luxury trade in the eighteenth century. The J. Paul Getty Museum is fortunate to have in its decorative arts collection twenty clocks dating from around 1680 to 1798: eighteen produced in France and two in Germany. They demonstrate the extraordinary workmanship that went into both the design and execution of the cases and the intricate movements by which the clocks operated. In this handsome volume, each clock is pictured and discussed in detail, and each movement diagrammed and described. In addition, biographies of the clockmakers and enamelers are included, as are indexes of the names of the makers, previous owners, and locations.

The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal
The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal

Author: The J. Paul Getty Museum

Publisher: Getty Publications

Published: 1979-01-01

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 0892360186

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The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 6/7 is a compendium of articles and notes pertaining to the Museum's permanent collections of antiquities, paintings, sculpture, and works of art. This volume includes an editorial statement by the journal’s editors: Burton B. Fredericksen, curator of Paintings, Jiří Frel, curator of Antiquities, and Gillian Wilson, curator of Decorative Arts. Conservation problems are discussed along with articles written by K. Christiansen, B. B. Fredericksen, S. Holo, G. Wilson, B. L. Shifman, M. Shapiro, J. Frel, D. M. Brinkerhoff, C. C. Vermeule, G. Koch, S. Downey, l. Kilian-Dirlmeier, C. Cardon, F. Brommer, M. A. Del Chiaro, P. Visonà, J. Cody, R. Mellor, D. L. Thompson, E. Langlotz, P. Zazoff, S. Knudsen Morgan, M. Jentoft-Nilsen, and A. Manzoni.

The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal
The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal

Author: The J. Paul Getty Museum

Publisher: Getty Publications

Published: 1993-01-28

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 0892362081

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The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal has been published annually since 1974. It contains scholarly articles and shorter notes pertaining to objects in the Museum’s seven curatorial departments: Antiquities, Manuscripts, Paintings, Drawings, Decorative Arts, Sculpture and Works of Art, and Photographs. The Journal also contains an illustrated checklist of the Museum’s acquisitions for the previous year, a staff listing, and a statement by the Museum’s Director outlining the year’s most important activities. Volume 19 of the J. Paul Getty Museum Journal includes articles by Nicholas Penny, Ariane van Suchtelen, Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann and Virginia Roehrig Kaufmann, Frits Scholten, David Harris Cohen, and Dawson W. Carr.