MANNHEIM Sigismond (EN)

Working first as a jeweler and then as a curiosities dealer, Sigismond Mannheim became a central figure in the booming Parisian objets d'art market (Mestdagh, Saint-Raymond, forthcoming).

Born in Frankfurt am Main, he settled in Paris in February 1817 as a "jeweler's worker", according to his application for naturalization in 1847 (AN, BB/11/523/ Extract 4337). On arrival, he was recommended to James Mayer de Rothschild (1792-1868), probably by Amshel Mayer de Rothschild (1773-1855), James' brother and heir to the founder of the Rothschild bank in Frankfurt. In 1821, Sigismond opened a business in the Palais Royal, 128 Galerie de Valois, where he was listed in the Almanach from 1827 as a "joaillier". A few years later, he became a curios dealer, probably encouraged by James de Rothschild, who was building up one of the capital's largest collections. In 1841, he set up shop at 8 rue de la Paix as a dealer in "jewelry, objets d'art and high curiosities". The store was leased to Hippolyte Aucoc, founder of the famous goldsmiths and jewelers.

By this time, he had already developed an expertise in auction sales, appearing as early as 1835 as "expert" in a sale of arms, armor and curios brought by a Hamburg merchant (Collection d'armes, d'armures et objets de curiosité, recueillis en Allemagne par M. Auerbach, antiquaire de Hambourg, et provenant des collections les plus estimées, entre autres celle du prince de Hesse-Hambourg, April 8, 1835). This expert role led to a long and regular collaboration with the Parisian auctioneer Bonnefons de Lavialle, succeeded by Charles Pillet in 1855. Sigismond Mannheim assisted them with estate inventories and the drafting of specialized sales catalogs. Following this collaboration, they regularly organized sales of curios and objets d'art, thus stimulating the market. In this capacity, he helped to develop connoisseurship around objets d'art and to structure a booming market, especially after the opening of the Hôtel Drouot in 1852 (Charpy, 2010).

From 1861, Sigismond was joined by his son Charles as associate expert. It was at this time that auctions of Asian objects from the looting of the former Summer Palace in Peking in 1860 were organized in Paris. Many of these auctions were conducted under Pillet's auspices, and Sigismond and Charles Mannheim emerged as the main players in this relatively new field of expertise; they were called upon for 10 of the 16 sales recorded between 1861 and 1868, including the signature sale of Objets d'art et de curiosité de la Chine provenant du Palais d'été de Yuen-Ming-Yuen on December 12, 1861 (Saint-Raymond, 2021; Howald, Saint Raymond, 2018). 
The Mannheims, father and son, appearing as the leading experts in sales of Asian objects, bear witness to this shift in expertise from eighteenth-century objets d'art to objects of Chinese origin, which they then knew mainly through the spectrum of European taste for oriental bronze-mounted porcelain and lacquerware (Mestdagh, 2019). 

When Sigismond Mannheim retired in 1867, three sales of his stock were organized at Hôtel Drouot: the first devoted to Objets de Chine et du Japon (November 25-26), the second and third to "Objets d'art et de Curiosité", covering marble and bronze sculptures, Sèvres porcelain, gilded bronzes and paintings (December 9-11), as well as silverware, ivories, arms and armor, glass and manuscripts (December 23-23). Unlike many of the figures active in this market at the time, no personal collection is recorded after his death in 1880.