An Empire gilt and patinated bronze athénienne, early 19th century

The athénienne was likely invented in 1773 by Jean-Henri Eberts,[1] drawing its inspiration from the tripod-shaped perfume burners found in Antiquity. It was also – as Eberts advertised in Avant-Coureur – intended to be multifunctional and could be used as a washstand, perfume burner, a brazier for keeping food warm or merely as an attractive piece of decorative furniture.[2] This multifunctionality is combined with an increasing demand for decorative arts that incorporated motifs from find at the archaeological sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum, creating a distinctive Neoclassical style. By 1800, Neoclassicism had reached its apotheosis and gave way to an even more restrained and rigid classicism under Napoleon I.

The swan motif, with its head reared and its wings outstretched, appears in a number of other athénienne models. A potential prototype for this athénienne is found in the background of Jacques-Louis David’s 1788 painting Les Amours de Paris et d’Hélène now at the Musée du Louvre (INV 3696); though in the painting, the base is without its pedestal. A pair of athéniennes bearing the same swan motif – though in patinated rather than gilded bronze – were sold Sotheby’s Paris, Une Collection à 360, 22 June 2023, lot 115, and a further similar sold at Christie's, Paris, 8 November 2013, lot 243.

A further comparison is an athénienne attributed to Pierre-Philippe Thomire, with sphinxes instead of swans, sold at Sotheby's, Paris, 22nd June 2023, lot 115.

[1] Francis Watson, Louis XVI Furniture. London : Alec Tiranti, 1960, 151.

[2] Svend Eriksen and F. J. B. Watson, “The ‘Athénienne’ and the Revival of the Classical Tripod”, The Burlington Magazine, 105, (Mar 1963): 108-112, 108.