FURNITURE & ART

AUCTIONS OF FURNITURE AND WORKS OF ART

Marquetry, precious woods, scales, bronzes, lapis lazuli, marbles, ivories, master glassmakers, cabinetmakers and joiners, assemblers.... Furniture and Works of Art from the Haute Epoque to the end of the 19th century brings together an infinite wealth of expertise.

A classic department par excellence and a symbol of auctioneering, the Furniture and Works of Art department presents works for sale from the Haute Epoque to the end of the 19th century.

Under the aegis of auctioneers and specialists, this department covers a wide range of specialities. It is particularly involved in sales of estates and collections, presenting the great works of the classical centuries.

The MILLON Furniture & Works of Art department

For the past 5 years, the Furniture and Works of Art department, located at 17 rue de la Grange Batelière in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, has been run by Claude Carrodo. Pélage de Coniac , Millon's long-standing partner, is particularly enthusiastic about this department: "What a joy, what a thrill to find treasures such as red chalk drawings by Fragonard [...] or a sixteenth-century compendium found in a batch of copper in the nooks and crannies of a flat, house or château...".

The Furniture and Works of Art department is the mainstay of the major auction houses, the most traditional but also the most nourishing.

Maître Mayeul de la Hamayde runs the sales, accompanied by Guillaume de Freslon, senior clerk, and Edouard Culot, inventory clerk. Lucile Clément administers around 15 sales a year for this department.

Claude Corrado, a leading specialist, works with the best experts to support his research. Michel Rullier and M. Commenchal, renowned experts, work with him to estimate pewter.

Millon Italia, managed by Vittorio Preda, and Millon Riviera, managed by Imen Gharbi, are also two of our branches specialising in the classical centuries.

Calendar

Our Furniture and Works of Art department holds around twenty sales a year, including six to eight catalogued sales highlighting private collections or estates, personalities or places.

• The Collections and Personalities auctions are market leaders. They are the result of prestigious sales centred on celebrities: the Jean Dutour sale, the Philippe Bouvard sale, the Maurice Druon sale, the Paulin Daudet sale and the Max-Pol Fouchet sale.
• The Collections and Estates auctions bring together the best of the collections and estates entrusted to us, with four sales a year. These sales have notably enabled you to discover the estates of Jérôme Napoléon Bonaparte, the Marquis d'Aligre, La Chapelle (Fragonard), the Château des Célestins, etc
• The Intérieurs et Caractères auctions present the collections of houses and châteaux. The works are more modest in estimate, but prices often soar under the auctioneer's hammer. These sales are full of discoveries and surprises.
• Biennials are catalogued sales that combine specialities with particularly fine pieces. They are often held at the low points in the auction calendar, in January and September, to create a buzz by being the first sales of the season. These Biennial auctions have been running for 10 years, and their success has never wavered.

Works of art at all price points

Our Furniture and Works of Art auctions feature marquetry, precious woods, scales, bronzes, lapis lazuli, marbles, ivories, master glassmakers, cabinetmakers and woodworkers..

Styles range from Henri IV to Napoleon III, via Louis XIV, the Transition, Louis XV, Louis XVI, the Consulate, the Empire, neo-Gothic, Romantic and other periods

The Furniture and Works of Art department is dedicated to items inherited from heirs and grandparents: wardrobes, chests of drawers, paintings, sculptures, porcelain, etc. While classic pieces follow one another, you'll also find some of the great names of past centuries: Boulle, Riesener, Caffieri, Percier et Fontaine, Thomire, Giroux and Lièvre. This is where you'll find the biscuit porcelain you're looking for, sitting on a Louis XV chest of drawers next to a mantelpiece!

The Furniture and Works of Art auctions offer a tour of Europe's decorative arts from the early Middle Ages to the 19th century. They bring together the eclectic collections of art lovers and enthusiasts, from illustrious origins or the fruit of generations of connoisseurs with names associated with the history of France. You'll find the names of great artists, craftsmen and commissioners.

Results

Our Furniture and Works of Art auctions are highly successful, with bids often skyrocketing! Here are just a few of the highlights:

• A flat mahogany and mahogany veneer middle desk designed after Guillaume Beneman by Sormani fetched €60,500. In the Louis XVI style, it far exceeded its estimate of €4 to €6,000 thanks to its leather top encircled by an ingot moulding, its ormolu ornamentation and its perfect Louis XVI style. Signed on the lock, it was reminiscent of the desk created for Charles XVI's library in Fontainebleau.
• A model of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem fetched €42,000 at auction. This original devotional piece is made up of movable walnut and olive wood elements decorated with mother-of-pearl and bone. A Syrian-Lebanese creation from the 17th and 18th centuries, it shattered its estimate of €10,000 to €15,000.
• Among the silver pieces, a pair of candlesticks, probably made by Jean Duché, fetched the handsome price of 52,000 euros. Made around 1770, the feet, umbilicals, shafts, binnacles, bouquets and bobèches were particularly ornate.
• In the sculpture category, an Antique-style bas-relief of Diana and the Niobids fetched 57,000 euros. According to family tradition, this work was found in autumn 1870 on the ruins of the temple of Diana at Nemi, in the Ariccia region of Italy.
• Also in Italy, in the sculpture category, a Madeleine in Ecstasy in patinated white marble fetched €85,000 against an estimate of €6,000 to €8,000. There is no doubt that this work, presented in the style of Bernini, demonstrated the talent of a great artist.

Services

The Furniture and Works of Art department is ideally placed to assist you with all your estate planning and family asset management needs. Edouard Culot, a clerk specialising in inventories, will arrange a meeting with our auctioneers and experts to help you through the process.

Guillaume de Freslon will offer you a service that includes all the necessary steps right up to the completion and payment of the auction. Lucile Clément will assist you with the administrative management of your file.

Do you have a question? A question? Need more information? All members of the department are at your service. To find out the value of your property, ask for a free, confidential valuation.