Christie’s France announces sale of furniture created by Armand Albert Ratea
Baku, March 2 (AZERTAC). Christie’s France is honored to announce the sale on 23rd may 2013 of an exceptional group of furniture created by the celebrated French art deco cabinet maker, Armand Albert Rateau.
Christie’s France is honored to announce the sale on 23rd May 2013 of an exceptional group of furniture created by the celebrated French Art Deco cabinet maker, Armand Albert Rateau (1882-1938), for the private apartments of the Duchess of Alba, doña María del Rosario de Silva y Gurtubay (1900-1934), in the Liria Palace, Madrid. Commissioned between 1920-1921 by her husband, Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart y Falco (1878-1953), 17th Duke of Alba, probably on the occasion of their marriage on 7th October 1920 at the Spanish Embassy in London, these pieces are amongst the most famous and legendary creations produced by the designer/cabinet maker/sculptor, trained at the renowned École Boulle.
“The House of Alba has decided to sell the Armand Albert Rateau furniture commissioned by the 17th Duke of Alba, don Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart in the early 1920s in France, in order to support the funding of its heritage and of its various palaces throughout Spain as well as supporting new projects for the family. This is part of a general reorganization undertaken by the House of Alba, as illustrated by the recent exhibition ‘El Legado Casa d’Alba’, the first ever organized in These pieces of furniture are all that remain of a larger ensemble that no longer exists. They do not form part of the historic collection of the House of Alba nor do they relate to the history of Spain”, stated the House of Alba.
This project was one of the three prestigious commissions that launched Rateau’s career after he began working independently in 1919. His first important commission was the Blumenthal swimming pool in New York, for which he created his first bronze pieces. Followed shortly in the early 1920 by a call from Jeanne Lanvin, a key figure in the fashion world, to design the interior of her mansion, rue Barbet-de-Jouy in Paris, as well as her houses in Le Vésinet, and so beginning a five-year period of collaboration. The Duke of Alba commission must have arrived soon after, if not concurrently.
The Duke of Alba, head of one of the most prestigious European aristocratic families, whose origins date back to the 13th and 14th centuries, had therefore turned to one of the most well-respected and elitist decorators of his time, Armand Albert Rateau, as much aesthete as artist, aged 37, who was already producing work at the height of his talents.
Armand Albert Rateau’s bronzes are creations of infinite poetry and of exceptional quality and subtlety. They relate to the hedonist world born from the designer’s imagination and nourished by his first journey to Naples and Pompeï in 1914, accompanied by a group of friends which included the jewelry designer Cartier and with whom he visited the sites revealed by archeological excavations at the end of the 18th century.
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