Martin Carlin

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.

Small table with Sèvres plaques, by Carlin, 1772 (Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon)

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
Martin Carlin, Fall-front desk, c. 1775 at Waddesdon Manor

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)

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

Coffret à bijoux

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

Coffret à bijoux (Jewel case on stand) 1770 (Versailles)

Commode à vantaux (Commode with doors)
  • Commode à vantaux, c. 1778, inset with Pietra Dure panels (one of Carlin's greatest examples), Royal Collection, UK

Encoignure (Corner cabinet)

Music-stand

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 à abattant

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

See also

Notes
  1. "Drop-front desk (secrétaire à abattant or secrétaire en cabinet), the Met". Retrieved 29 Nov 2018.
  2. Myers, Mary L. French Architectural and Ornament Drawings of the Eighteenth Century. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 196.
  3. When Oeben died in 1763, Carlin, who was living nearby, was one of his creditors (Eriksen 1974:159).
  4. "Antiquités Fouqet". Retrieved 29 Nov 2018.
  5. Other ébénistes working for Poirier were Roger Vandercruse Lacroix and Bernard II van Risamburgh

References
  • Svend Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France pp 159 (bio.)

Further reading
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