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Lot Essay
The coat-of-arms featured to the top of this commode is that of the Dauphin, son of the French King. It is very probably those of the eldest son of Charles X, Louis-Antoine d'Artois (1775-1844), duc d'Angoulème, who was Dauphin from 1824 to 1830.
With its progressive goût grec design and triumphant armorial celebrating the Restauration of the Bourbon monarchy, this commode reflects the taste for 'Buhl' furniture amongst English collectors. Indeed the majority of the mounts are after-casts of Louis XIV and Régence prototypes employed by Noel Gérard. The Levasseur dynasty was fundamental in satisfying this 'antiquarian' trend. Whilst Etienne Levasseur père does not appear to have continued working after the Revolution and he died in the rue de Faubourg-Saint-Antoine on 8 December 1798, his son and grandson followed in his footsteps, specialising in Boulle marquetry furniture well into the 1820s. Indeed Levasseur the Younger placed an advertisement in the Bazar Parisien in 1822 in which he described himself as perhaps the only ébéniste making and repairing Boulle furniture in Paris, 'furniture seldom seen but avidly sought by collectors and dealers' (A. Pradère, French Furniture Makers, Paris, 1989, p.316).
F.J.B. Watson's article on 'The Great Duke's Taste For French Furniture', Apollo, vol.CII, July, 1975, p.47 (fig. 8), also revealed the little-known marchand-mercier Le Chevalier Fériol de Bonnemaison as a major retailer of Boulle furniture. An otherwise little-documented marchand-mercier, Le Chevalier is now thought to have been responsible for supplying much of the 'Buhl' furniture that found its way into English collections in the early 19th century, possibly working alongside Edward Holmes Baldock (d.1843).
The Wildenstein commode is identical to - and was undoubtedly executed in the same workshop - as a pair of commodes formerly in the Gutzwiller Collection, offered at Sotheby's Monaco, 1 July 1995, lot 29. Of the latter, only one of the commodes was described as being Louis XIV, the other being of later date. It is interesting to note therefore, that an ostensibly identical pair of commodes was sold from the Collection of Lord Foley, Ruxley Lodge, Surrey, sold Castiglione & Scott, 14 October 1919, lot 897.
A further commode undoubtedly executed in the same workshop, which also re-uses mounts associated with the oeuvre of the Pagoda Master, Noel Gérard, was sold from the Henle Collection, Sotheby's London, 3 December 1997, lot 103.
With its progressive goût grec design and triumphant armorial celebrating the Restauration of the Bourbon monarchy, this commode reflects the taste for 'Buhl' furniture amongst English collectors. Indeed the majority of the mounts are after-casts of Louis XIV and Régence prototypes employed by Noel Gérard. The Levasseur dynasty was fundamental in satisfying this 'antiquarian' trend. Whilst Etienne Levasseur père does not appear to have continued working after the Revolution and he died in the rue de Faubourg-Saint-Antoine on 8 December 1798, his son and grandson followed in his footsteps, specialising in Boulle marquetry furniture well into the 1820s. Indeed Levasseur the Younger placed an advertisement in the Bazar Parisien in 1822 in which he described himself as perhaps the only ébéniste making and repairing Boulle furniture in Paris, 'furniture seldom seen but avidly sought by collectors and dealers' (A. Pradère, French Furniture Makers, Paris, 1989, p.316).
F.J.B. Watson's article on 'The Great Duke's Taste For French Furniture', Apollo, vol.CII, July, 1975, p.47 (fig. 8), also revealed the little-known marchand-mercier Le Chevalier Fériol de Bonnemaison as a major retailer of Boulle furniture. An otherwise little-documented marchand-mercier, Le Chevalier is now thought to have been responsible for supplying much of the 'Buhl' furniture that found its way into English collections in the early 19th century, possibly working alongside Edward Holmes Baldock (d.1843).
The Wildenstein commode is identical to - and was undoubtedly executed in the same workshop - as a pair of commodes formerly in the Gutzwiller Collection, offered at Sotheby's Monaco, 1 July 1995, lot 29. Of the latter, only one of the commodes was described as being Louis XIV, the other being of later date. It is interesting to note therefore, that an ostensibly identical pair of commodes was sold from the Collection of Lord Foley, Ruxley Lodge, Surrey, sold Castiglione & Scott, 14 October 1919, lot 897.
A further commode undoubtedly executed in the same workshop, which also re-uses mounts associated with the oeuvre of the Pagoda Master, Noel Gérard, was sold from the Henle Collection, Sotheby's London, 3 December 1997, lot 103.