Dom Pérignon At The Cup - L Chavalliaud 1858-1919

Dimensions Height: approx. 46 cm Width: approx. 17 cm Depth: approx. 23.5 cm Terrace: 14.5 X 14.5 cm Weight: 3,224 grams Signature Signed on the motif: under the bottle of Champagne. Titled: Dom PERIGNON 1635 - 1715 Material plaster with bronze patina resting on a square terrace. Note Some minor wear to the patina. The hand on the cup glued back by a professional. DOM PÉRIGNON, this illustrious figure from Champagne, was born in Sainte-Menehould on January 5, 1639, four months before Louis XIV, and died on September 14, 1715, 13 days after the Sun King… At the age of 19, he entered the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Pierre d'Hautvillers. He was quickly tasked by the Father Abbot with looking after all the material goods of the monastery, including the supply of the cellar, the collection and conservation of food and the expenses of the community. A heavy and sometimes thankless task, because the cellarer, through his position, allowed the other monks to be totally available for prayer and their own tasks. As part of his role, DOM PÉRIGNON took an interest in the abbey's vineyards. He encouraged the conservation of wine in glass bottles rather than ceramic, which was more porous. The monk worked hard, but left no notes, no reports, no writings of his research and experiments. This is how legend took hold of him... It says that through his experiments, the monk found a way to allow the wine to foam in the bottle without it bursting. Indeed, until then, sparkling wine had a tendency to make bottles explode under pressure, which earned it the name of devil's wine, or corkscrew. To stopper the glass bottle, DOM PÉRIGNON chose cork, a material that was both waterproof and permeable to air, which allowed the oxygenation of the wine. However, the problem of the corkscrew remained. The cellar monk therefore decided to hold the cork stopper in place with a hemp string. But to give Caesar what is Caesar's, the method of champagne making adopted by the Champagne monk had already been in use for a very long time in this magnificent Aude terroir around Limoux. DOM PÉRIGNON would therefore have taken a small loan... To sculpt DOM PÉRIGNON, no less than a Champagne sculptor was needed!

Léon CHAVALLIAUD was born in Reims on January 29, 1858. Trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he studied in the studios of Alexandre FALGUIÈRE, François JOUFFROY and Louis Auguste ROUBAUD. In 1886, he was awarded the Second Prix de Rome. A member of the Artistes Français, he was awarded an honorable mention in 1885 and 1886. In the early 1890s, Léon CHAVALLIAUD settled in England, in Liverpool. There, he sculpted a Prince Henry the Navigator, a Charles Darwin, a Cardinal Newman and, in 1897, a monumental statue of Mrs Siddons as a tragic muse for Paddington Green in London. He also occasionally worked with the London firm Farmer and Bradley, which specialized in architectural sculptures. At the 1891 Salon, he was awarded the 3rd class medal. At the 1910 Salon, he presented a statue representing DOM PÉRIGNON that he had sculpted in 1907. Kept at the Abbaye d'Hautevilliers, where DOM PÉRIGNON had exercised his talents as a cellarer with talent and ingenuity, the sculpture was presented at the 1910 Salon where it was awarded a 2nd class medal, at the 1910 Salon. Léon CHAVALLIAUD died in Boissy-sans-Avoir (Yvelines), at the age of 61, on February 5, 1919. He was buried in his hometown.

© Copyright texts and photos: Les Trésors de Gamaliel