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Martin Carlin (c. 1730–1785) was a Parisian ébéniste (cabinet-maker), born at Freiburg, who was received as Master Ébéniste at Paris on 30 July 1766. Renowned for his "graceful furniture mounted with Sèvres porcelain",^[1] Carlin fed into the luxury market of eighteenth-century decorative arts, where porcelain-fitted furniture was considered among "the most exquisite furnishings"^[2] within the transitional and neoclassical styles. Carlin's furniture was popular amongst the main great dealers, including Poirier, Daguerre, and Darnault, who sold his furniture to Marie Antoinette and many amongst the social elite class. He died on 6 March 1785.

Work life

Carlin worked at first in the shop of Jean-François Oeben, whose sister he married.^[3] The marriage contract reveals that "Carlin was still a day-worker living on the quai des Célestins".^[4] Yet soon after Oeben's death, Carlin started to sell furniture to the marchands-merciers when setting up independently in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. This was however an unfashionable quarter of Paris, where few of his wealthy clientele would have penetrated. Therefore, Carlin found it necessary to sell his works exclusively to marchands-merciers such as Simon-Philippe Poirier^[5] and his partner Dominique Daguerre, who acted as decorative-designers. It was only through these entrepreneurs that Carlin could acquire the Sèvres porcelain plaques that decorated many of his pieces. His earliest such pieces can be dated by the marks on their porcelain to 1766; they followed designs supplied by the dealer Poirier. The great dealers also possessed an expansive network of the monarchy and much of the nobility, and thus sold Carlin's furniture to figures such as, Marie Antoinette, the comte de Provence, the comte d'Artois, Louis XV's daughters, the mesdames de France, Madame du Barry, and the duchesse de Mazarin.

For 12 years after becoming Master Ebéniste, he made porcelain-mounted furniture for Poirier and after 1778, he fed into the popular taste for exotic, 'oriental' designs and materials, and therefore started to produce sumptuous pieces in Japanese lacquer.

Collection

Although Martin Carlin made some larger pieces— secrétaires à abattant (drop-front secretary desks), tables, and commodes— he is best known for refined small furnishings in the neoclassical taste, some of them veneered with cut up panels of Chinese lacquer, which he would also have received from the hands of the marchands-merciers.

Bonheur du jour (Table à gradin dite)

Bonheur du jour, 1765, Bowes Museum, UK
Bonheur du jour, 1766, Musée Nissim de Camondo, France
Bonheur du jour, 1768, Boughton House, UK
Bonheur du jour, 1768, delivered to the Comtesse du Barry, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, United States
Bonheur du jour, 1769, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, United States
Bonheur du jour, 1770, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, United States
Bonheur du jour, 1770, The Huntington Library, United States
Bonheur du jour, 1771, The Huntington Library, United States
Bonheur du jour, 1774, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, United States

Bureau plat (Writing table)

Bureau plat, 1778, delivered to the Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna and Grand Duke Paul Petrovich of Russia for the Palace of Pavlosk, Getty Museum, United States

Cabinet

Cabinet, c. 1783, Royal Collection, UK

Coffret à bijoux

Coffret à bijoux, 1770, delivered to Marie-Antoinette for the Petit Triannon, Château de Versailles, France
Coffret à bijoux, c. 1770, delivered to the Comtesse du Barry, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, United States
Coffret à bijoux, c. 1774, delivered to the Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna and Grand Duke Paul Petrovich of Russia for the Palace of Pavlosk, The Detroit Institute of Arts, United States
Coffret à bijoux, c. 1775, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, United States

Coffret à bijoux, c. 1775, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, United States

Commode à vantaux (Commode with doors)

Commode à vantaux made in 1778 in ebony inset with precious pietra dura panels signed by Gian Ambrogio Giachetti. In the 18th century, this commode formed part of the collection of Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt who had it placed in his bedroom at his residence in Paris, the Hôtel de Besenval. It is one of Carlin's greatest examples and with no doubt, it was one of the baron’s finest and most valuable pieces of furniture. The commode was acquired in 1828 in Paris by King George IV through his confectioner François Benois. Today it is part of the Royal Collection and on display in the Green Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace.^[6]^[7]

Encoignure (Corner cabinet)

Pair of Encoignures, 1772, Wallace Collection, UK

Music-stand

Music-stand and writing table, c. 1775, Waddesdon Manor, UK
Music-stand, 1770-75, Getty Museum, United States

Music-stand and writing-table

Music-stand and writing-table, 1786, given by Marie-Antoinette to Mrs William Eden (later Lady Auckland), V&A, UK

Reading stand

Reading stand, c. 1780, V&A, UK

Secrétaire

Secrétaire, 1775, Getty Museum, United States
Secrétaire, 1776, Wallace Collection, UK
Secrétaire, 1776-77, Getty Museum, United States

Secrétaire à abattant

Secrétaire à abattant, 1776, Waddesdon Manor, UK
Secrétaire à abattant, 1770-80, V&A, UK

Table à ouvrage

Table à ouvrage, 1770. delivered to the duchesse de Mazarin in 1779 for her dressing room, Getty Museum, United States
Table à ouvrage, 1773, Getty Museum, United States
Table à ouvrage, 1775, V&A, UK
Table à ouvrage, 1783-84, Wallace Collection, UK
Table à ouvrage, 1786, given by Marie-Antoinette to Mrs William Eden (later Lady Auckland), V&A, UK

Notes

^ "Drop-front desk (secrétaire à abattant or secrétaire en cabinet), the Met". Retrieved 29 Nov 2018.
^ Myers, Mary L. French Architectural and Ornament Drawings of the Eighteenth Century. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 196.
^ When Oeben died in 1763, Carlin, who was living nearby, was one of his creditors (Eriksen 1974:159).
^ "Antiquités Fouqet". Retrieved 29 Nov 2018.
^ Other ébénistes working for Poirier were Roger Vandercruse Lacroix and Bernard II van Risamburgh
^ Paul Gallois: Baron de Besenval’s eclectic eye, The Furniture History Society, London, Newsletter 221, February 2021, p. 8
^ Royal Collection Trust: Commode à vantaux from the former collection of Baron de Besenval, RCIN 2588