GALERIE NICOLAS FOURNERY

A pair of Chinese armorial plates for the French market (Gabriel II Michel de Tharon). Qianlong

The plates decorated in the famille rose palette, with the coat-of-arms of Gabriel II Michel de Tharon in the center of the plates, D’argent, au sautoir de contre-vair, chargé en abîme d’un annelet de gueules et cantonné de quatre étoiles de même, supported by two gilt lions. The rim with garlands of flowers.

Country:
China
Period :
Qianlong (1736-1795), circa 1760
Material:
Porcelain
Dimension:
8.66 in. (23 cm)
Reference :
E507
Status:
sold

Notice

This service was commissioned by Gabriel II Michel, sometimes referred to as Gabriel II Michel de Tharon, who was born on January 22, 1702, in Nantes and died in 1765. He was the seigneur de Doulon, Verger, and Chamballon, and was a notable French businessman of the 18th century, a shipowner in Nantes, and one of the directors of the Compagnie des Indes. His grandfather, Gabriel I Michel (deceased in 1687), the son of Pierre Michel and Marguerite Le Tourneur (married in 1623), a merchant at La Fosse, held the position of consul judge for the merchants of Nantes at least from 1672, but not after 1677. He married Françoise d’Espinoze (1641-1714) in 1661, from a family of Spanish descent that settled in Nantes since the 16th century. Gabriel II Michel married Anne Bernier in 1725, with whom he had eight children. Along with the Grou, the Walsh, and the Montaudoin families, the Michel family ranks among the most prominent shipowners in Nantes.

Gabriel II Michel played a notable role in trade and the slave trade in Nantes. He conducted 41 “operations en droiture” to the Antilles (meaning directly to the colonies) and 42 via the triangular trade. By the 1730’s, he held the position of counselor-secretary to the king at the Grand Council. He also served as consul of Nantes in 1730-1731. He was a gentleman of the Chamber for King Stanislas Leszczynski, Duke of Lorraine and Bar. In 1758, he obtained the position of treasurer-general of artillery and engineering. In 1748, Gabriel and François-Augustin Michel partnered with Jean-Baptiste Grou to form the trading company Grou and Michel, which shortly thereafter participated in the creation of the Compagnie des Indes. Gabriel II Michel served as one of the directors of the French East India Company from 1749 to 1764.

In the early 1740s, he acquired the lordship of Doulon, near Nantes, and commissioned the construction of the Château du Grand-Blottereau on this estate. In 1753, he purchased the Hôtel Marbeuf, a private hotel particulier in Paris, located at the site of the current Hôtel Pillet-Will, at No. 31. In 1763, two years before his death, he bought the Château de Champs-sur-Marne from the Duke of La Vallière.

By appointment only, 10th arrondissement, Paris.
nf@galerienicolasfournery.fr / +33 (0)6 26 57 59 87

Be the first to hear about the latest pieces, join the email list.