THE BRAGARD BOX

In 1689, French laws made it illegal to manufacture luxury items from precious metals, because silver was needed to pay for Louis XIV's foreign wars. His vast military campaigns resulted in the segng up of the sumptuary decrees of 1689-1709. These required that small personal items, such as toiletries, boxes and mirrors could no longer be silver or gold. To imitate Louis XIV, who had melted his objects in gold and silver, the upper classes sought a subs5tute for these precious metals.

The carvers of Nancy in the independent Duchy of Lorraine (now in eastern France) subsequently made a great success of carved versions of such pieces using fruit woods such as pear and very fine-grained cherry wood known in French as bois de Sainte-Lucie. Both the forms and the decora5on were based on contemporary silverware. The trade con5nued un5l at least the 1740s.

The importance of Nancy as a centre of sculpture in Europe cannot be overstated. It was dominated by the Bagard family, a dynasty of three famous sculptors in Nancy. These sculptors were ac5ve from the end of the 16th century to the beginning of the 18th century. They were Nicolas Bagard, his son César and finally Toussaint. The best known is César Bagard (1620 - 1709). Born in Nancy in 1620, he was a pupil of the great Jacquin, known as the best sculptor in Lorraine of his 5me. His exper5se was so appreciated that he also earned the nickname "Grand Caesar". He worked for many personali5es in France including the Duke of Lorraine. Also in Paris on the triumphal arch erected on the occasion of the marriage of Louis XIV.

César Bagard created boxes, cupboards, and wooden utensils using Bois de Sainte-Lucie. The Nancy cra=smen made these Sainte Lucie wooden ar5cles using the repertoire of pa?erns found on objects made of precious metal. Less precious and less fragile than lacquer, the Sainte Lucie wood lends itself perfectly to the delicate workmanship of the goldsmith.

Indirectly, this Sainte Lucie tree established Lorraine and the city of Nancy as a centre of excellence for sculpture. In order to cope with the demand for his wood carvings, César Bagard expanded his workshop and took on Jacob Sigisbert Adam as an appren5ce. Subsequently, the sculptor Jacob Sigisbert Adam (1670 - 1747), rose to become a renowned representa5ve of French late baroque and a virtuoso master in small format sculp5ng.

In 1699, Jacob Sigisbert Adam began to execute commissions for Leopold, Duke of Lorraine. Nowadays a charming centerpiece made for the court of Nancy from 1701, showing Cupid amidst frogs, is s5ll preserved. A year later he made small animal sculptures (a deer and eight dogs), intended as decora5on for the duke’s banquets. In 1724 he also made the figures of the na5vity scene for the ducal Christmas fes5vi5es. In addi5on to such small pieces, Jacob Sigisbert Adam also executed large works, such as a lead sculpture for the park of the Lunéville palace. However, his small sculptures in bronze and terraco?a made the largest contribu5ons to his fame but his three sons would go on to work on the outdoor sculptures at Versailles.

The Sainte Lucie tree is a wild cherry and has an exo5c history. It belongs to a genus where most, if not all members produce hydrogen cyanide, a poison that gives almonds their characteris5c flavour. This toxin is found mainly in the leaves and seed and is readily detected by its bi?er taste. It is usually present in too small a quan5ty to do any harm but any very bi?er seed or fruit should not be eaten. In small quan55es, hydrogen cyanide has been shown to s5mulate respira5on and improve diges5on. It is also claimed to be of benefit in the treatment of cancer. In excess, however, it can cause respiratory failure and even death.

The tree and its fruits have been known and appreciated from an5quity. It has the unusual botanical name of Prunus mahaleb and is a likely candidate for the ḫalub-tree men5oned in early Sumerian wri5ngs, a durable fruit-bearing hardwood with seeds and leaves known for their medicinal proper5es and associated with the goddess Innana, an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fer5lity. She is also associated with beauty and divine jus5ce. She was worshiped in Sumer and later by the Babylonians and Assyrians under the name Ishtar.

The Arabic mahleb or mahlab meaning the mahaleb cherry appears in medieval Islamic wri5ngs. Ibn Al-Awwam in his book on agriculture dated to the late 12th century described how to cul5vate the mahaleb tree: he says the tree is a vigorous grower, easy to grow, but is not resistant to prolonged drought. He also described how to prepare the mahaleb seeds by boiling them in sugared water. One early record in La5n appears in 1317 in an encyclopedia by Ma?haeus Silva5cus who wrote that the "mahaleb" is the kernel seed of the fruit of both domes5cated and wild cherry trees in Arabic countries. Today its cul5va5on and use is largely restricted to the former O?oman Empire with Syria being is the main expor5ng country. From its early roots in modern Iraq, the tree made its way up to north Africa crossing into Europe from Morocco to Spain and thence to France.

This par5cular box celebrates the very tree from which it is made. It draws inspira5on from the floral kingdom and highlights some large bloomed peonies in a basket of flowers. But close examina5on reveals small sprays of the five petalled St Lucy flowers which also appear in the strapwork cartouche surrounding the flower basket.

When discovered in London in 2022, this box had already suffered at the hands of an unsympathe5c restorer who had not only coated all the exterior with a dark varnish (probably to disguise the shrinkage crack in the lid) but had also carried out thoughtless repairs to the interior.

There is a similar box in the Metropolitan Museum in New York which s5ll hides under an unfla?ering layer of varnish. Very careful removal of this varnish, carried out over dozens of hours under a strong light and magnifiers, finally revealed the original exquisitely detailed carving defining all the flowers and leaves that can finally be appreciated once again.

Another unexpected consequence of restora5on to the interior was the discovery of the original hinges completely covered previously with wood addi5ons aimed at strengthening the hinges and box walls. A more recent desecra5on was the lining of the box with a faux leather, plas5c lining presumably intended to render the box more saleable when it came to auc5on in 2022.

The modern plas5c lining was removed, the glue cleaned and the original hinges revealed and restored. Screws and round shanked nails didn’t become avaible un5l the industrial revolu5on in the 18thC. The only pins and nails used on this box were square in cross sec5on so the screws used at some point to secure the hinges were replaced with age appropriate nails.

The varia5on in skill or quality of execu5on of the carvers in the Bagard workshops can be seen in these two examples. Both depict a basket of flowers but the one (le=) which forms the top of the box in the author’s collec5on can be seen to be much more detailed. There is a variety of flowers, leaves and stems depicted so accurately and with such exuberant dimensionality that the species can be determined with some precision. The one below le= seems more generic with only a single species of flower shown and the execu5on is much more rudimentary. It appears flat whereas the one above it has great depth and must have required a variety of extremely small chisels to carry out the carving with this degree of accuracy.

The luxurious originals in precious metals are long gone whereas their humbler equivalents in wood remain. Glory and celebrity are o=en flee5ng. Modesty can occasionally be a be?er survival strategy.