BY JEAN-CHARLES SAUNIER

Details

A LATE LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD AND AMARANTH BUREAU A CYLINDRE
By Jean-Charles Saunier
The chamfered rectangular top with three-quarter Greek key-pattern gallery above a tambour shutter enclosing a fitted interior with four drawers and five pigeon-holes above a green leather-lined writing-surface with ratcheted slope, above a frieze drawer and a kneehole flanked on each side by two drawers, the sides each with a green leather-lined slide, on cabriole legs with maiden mounts below laurel-swagged pedestals reaching to paw feet headed by acanthus, veneered on the reverse, stamped on the underside 'I.C. SAUNIER', with remains of a further stamp between the upper and lower sections, with late 19th Century printed paper label 'F.I.C...NESS DOWAGER OF BATH', originally with a complicated locking mechanism through the back of the carcass operated by the cylinder, the present locks, framing mounts and lacquered-brass handles for the drawers English late 18th early 19th Century, lacking one small urn on one back angle mount
47 in. (119.5 cm.) high; 77 in. (195.5 cm.) wide; 34¼ in. (87 cm.) deep

Provenance

Almost certainly bought by John Alexander, 4th Marquess of Bath (1831-1896) for 48 Berkeley Square, London and by descent to his son
Lord Alexander Thynne (1873-1918), Norton Hall, Daventry, Northamptonshire and by descent to his sister
Lady Beatrice Thynne (d. 1941) Norton Hall and by descent.

Literature

1896 Inventory (4th Marquess' Heirlooms, London), Library, 'A 6 ft 6 tulip and rosewood banded Gentleman's secretaire with revolving front and five drawers, heavy gilt ormolu mounts and pierced gallery'.
1942 Norton Hall Inventory, Schedule A, Writing or Morning Room, '6 ft Louis XVI writing table of tulip and kingwood interior fittings, revolving front five drawers under on cabriole legs ormolu mounts pierced brass gallery and plate glass projecting top 120-0-0'.
Recorded in the same room at Norton Hall in 1919.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Jean-Charles Saunier, maitre in 1743.

This magnificent cylinder-bureau, of exceptionally grand scale, clearly reflects the influence of the ébéniste du roi Jean-François Oeben (maître in 1761). In the Inventory drawn up following Oeben's death in January 1763, two desks of this overall form, but almost certainly smaller, are recorded (J.J. Guiffrey, Inventaire de Jean-françois Oeben, 1763, Nouvelles Archives de l'Art français, 3e Série, TXV, 1899, p. 312 and 333), and the celebrated bureau du roi, now at Versailles, thought to be the earliest recorded cylinder top desk, also remained unfinished at the time of Oeben's death, being completed by Jean-Henri Riesener and finally delivered for the King's use in May 1769.

Jean-Charles Saunier, the eldest son of Charles Saunier, took over his father's atelier in the rue du Faubourg-Saint-Antoine and is known to have worked for fellow tapissiers and, in particular for Oeben. In that Saunier's son Claude Charles only finally registered his maîtrise in 1765 with the intention of succeeding to his father's workshop, this cylinder-bureau is undoubteldy one of the earliest and grandest of its type, its early goût grec Greek-key pierced gallery very much in the vanguard of fashionable Parisian taste of the early 1760's.

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