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Lot Essay
Pieces created by the ébeniste and bronzier André Charles Boulle were the height of status and sophistication in the late 17th and early 18th Centuries. Boulle's creations were sought after by European royalty and aristocracy including Louis XIV, Pierre Crozat, dit le Riche, his nephew Louis-Antoine Crozat, Baron de Thiers, Cardinal Rohan, Philipe V of Spain, the duc de Bourbon and the Regent, duc d'Orléans.
At the height of the Rococo in the late 1740's, Boulle's furniture - and in particular the distinctive marquetry technique synonymous with his name, came to be seen as old-fashioned. However, starting in the late 1750's, sales of the celebrated collections formed by Lalive de Jully (1758), Blondel de Gagny (1776), Jean de Julienne (1767), and Randon de Boisset (1777) resulted in a historical re-evaluation of Boulle's oeuvre, and this ultimately led to a renewed enthusiasm for the aesthetic of Boulle furniture which was revived in the late 18th century by celebrated ébénistes such as Pierre-Etienne Levasseur (d.1823).
With the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789, demand inevitably waned almost completely, and it was left to the English cognoscenti to adopt the collecting mantle of the ancien regime. The intricate, sinuous designs of Boulle marquetry epitomize the exotic and antiquarian taste of the court of George IV. During the early 19th Century, often with the assistance of the English marchand-mercier Edward Holmes Baldock (d. 1845), the vast majority of Boulle furniture made its way into English collections.
A related Louis XV commode with 17th Century marquetry panels, reapplied in the 19th Century, from the Property of Sir William Roberts, BT., removed from Strathallan Castle, Perthshire, was sold Christie's London, 5 June, 1997, lot 92. The provenance for this commode indicates it was acquired by George Drummond, 6th Duke of Melfort and Perth (d.1902) in Paris, around the time to his marriage to Baroness Albertine von Totberg Rheinweiler (d.1842) in 1831. Another Louis XV example, of very similar form to the commode offered here, also with associated brown tortoiseshell Boulle marquetry panels is illustrated Didier Aaron, Catalogue, 1994/1995, pl.30.
At the height of the Rococo in the late 1740's, Boulle's furniture - and in particular the distinctive marquetry technique synonymous with his name, came to be seen as old-fashioned. However, starting in the late 1750's, sales of the celebrated collections formed by Lalive de Jully (1758), Blondel de Gagny (1776), Jean de Julienne (1767), and Randon de Boisset (1777) resulted in a historical re-evaluation of Boulle's oeuvre, and this ultimately led to a renewed enthusiasm for the aesthetic of Boulle furniture which was revived in the late 18th century by celebrated ébénistes such as Pierre-Etienne Levasseur (d.1823).
With the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789, demand inevitably waned almost completely, and it was left to the English cognoscenti to adopt the collecting mantle of the ancien regime. The intricate, sinuous designs of Boulle marquetry epitomize the exotic and antiquarian taste of the court of George IV. During the early 19th Century, often with the assistance of the English marchand-mercier Edward Holmes Baldock (d. 1845), the vast majority of Boulle furniture made its way into English collections.
A related Louis XV commode with 17th Century marquetry panels, reapplied in the 19th Century, from the Property of Sir William Roberts, BT., removed from Strathallan Castle, Perthshire, was sold Christie's London, 5 June, 1997, lot 92. The provenance for this commode indicates it was acquired by George Drummond, 6th Duke of Melfort and Perth (d.1902) in Paris, around the time to his marriage to Baroness Albertine von Totberg Rheinweiler (d.1842) in 1831. Another Louis XV example, of very similar form to the commode offered here, also with associated brown tortoiseshell Boulle marquetry panels is illustrated Didier Aaron, Catalogue, 1994/1995, pl.30.