A first edition of the sumptuous record of the triumphal Entrée de Henri II à Rouen, a 1551 quarto volume printed in Rouen with 26 illustrations (five double-page, see right) showing Henri II and his queen Catherine de Medici enjoying their own Norman conquest, sold over estimate for Fr66,000 (£6400).
The south Norman lacemaking centre of Alençon saw a late 19th century Persian Bijar flower-patterned blue carpet, 24 x 14ft (6.8 x 4.2m), its principal border featuring clouds and stylised crabs on an emerald field, race to Fr228,000 (£22,100) on January 14.
An unstamped two-drawered, marble-topped Louis XV commode, with geometric marquetry, seemed to confirm its attribution to Hache by soaring to Fr525,000 (£51,000), five times estimate, in Honfleur on January 28. Further west around the Normandy coast, a Louis XVI mahogany bureau à cylindre stamped Levasseur, once owned by Revolutionary luminary Abbé Sieyès, made Fr207,000 (£20,100) in Granville on January 28.
A limestone bas-relief, 21in x 2ft 2in (53 x 65cm), from the New Kingdom (late 18th or early 19th Dynasty) and once in the Jeffries Ayman Collection, with traces of dark red colouring and showing two priests – one holding a book, the other with arms raised skyward – sold over estimate for Fr57,000 (£5500) in Sens on January 20.
A carved Mitsogho reliquary figure from Gabon, 14in (35cm) tall, with shiny patina, two plaits ending in metal rings, a beaten copper triangle applied to the forehead, and an elongated neck with two metallic necklaces, zoomed to Fr580,000 (£56,300) – six times estimate – in Compiègne on January 27, helped by an illustrious provenance: it once belonged to the Nourhan Manoukian Collection.
Exchange rate: £1 = Fr10.3
Henri II makes his bookmark
FRANCE: A SET of 56 folio engraved plates by the Renaissance draughtsman and engraver Jacques Androuet du Cerceau (Paris c.1560), showing various Renaissance furniture designs ranging from buffets and tables to wardrobes and beds, below right, tripled hopes on Fr70,000 (£6800) in Chartres on January 21.
