Material Pleyel grand piano in Macassar ebony veneer, walnut, and violet wood with a case ornamented with gilded wood and gilded bronze. Tripod legs with slightly sabre-shaped front legs and conical rear legs.
Dimensions 108 x 160 x 190 cm.
Place of Creation France
Status Vetted

About the Work

"(...) Here is an exception, a magnificent achievement born from the fortunate meeting of a man of impeccable taste and a master architect of remarkable vision. A meeting that often turned into a valuable collaboration. The private mansion that Mr.

Ducharne had built on Rue Albéric-Magnard, in Auteuil, reflects in its smallest details the harmony that continuously prevailed between him and his architect, Mr. Pierre Patout, an infinitely privileged relationship in this regard. No less privileged was the excellence and clarity of the program to be fulfilled: a type of private residence embodying high luxury, ample comfort, and exquisite distinction.The architect was tasked with constructing and arranging a car garage, an art gallery, a large and a small living room, a dining room with an adjacent kitchen, a library-office, a billiard room, a master bedroom, three children's bedrooms, a guest room, bathrooms, a dressing room, a boudoir, and, for the children, a physical education room.(...)We do not propose, for now, to describe in detail the delicate refinement of this mansion room by room. However, its furnishing ensembles were entrusted to Ruhlmann, a choice whose merit lies, among others, in uniting once again the master decorator with the architect who designed the plans for the charming "Hôtel du Collectionneur" at the Exposition. Mr. Ducharne's mansion proceeds very much in the same spirit. (...)"G. REMON, "A Private Mansion in Auteuil by Mr. Pierre Patout, Architect," in Jardins & Cottages, Edmond Honoré edition, Sèvres, January 1927, No. 10, pp. 97-105.

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Provenance

Made for the private mansion of François Ducharne, built by Pierre Patout in Paris. This piano appears in the Pleyel archives under the number 188,927; it left the factory on December 14, 1929, and was delivered to Monsieur Ducharne for 44,850 francs. – Érard, Pleyel, Gaveau Fund, Manufacturing Register [A]: Pianos (Serial No. 175,851 to 190,050) / Pleyel, p. 262.

Literature

Emmanuel Bréon, Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann - architecture d'intérieur, Flammarion, 2004, Paris, our piano reproduced in situ on p. 9.

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