.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Philippe-Claude Montigny, maître ébéniste in 1766.
This striking work table reflects the goût grec style introduced in the 1750's by the architect Louis-Joseph Le Lorrain. Probably working in collaboration with a marchand-mercier such as Simon-Philippe Poirier, Le Lorrain's goût grec style was first realized in the designs for the celebrated suite of furniture supplied for the Parisian hotel of the amateur Ange-Laurent Lalive de Jully circa 1755, which included the famous bureau plat and cartonnier now in the musée Condé at Chantilly. The stylized Greek key ornament of this table relates it to the well-documented group of bureaux à la Grecque of larger scale stamped by both Montigny and René Dubois, who were cousins and frequently collaborated (for examples by both makers see A. Pradère, Les Ébénistes Français de Louis XIV à la Révolution, Paris, 1989, p. 300, fig. 334 and p. 306, fig. 344). The tighter Greek key of this example is particularly distinctive and features on a bureau stamped by both Dubois and Cosson (sold from the collection of Segoura; Christie’s, New York, 19 October 2006, lot 115), demonstrating that ultimately a marchand-mercier was responsible for these stylish models.
Two virtually identical tables are recorded, both with lifting tops, but neither with marquetry to the top: one sold Sotheby’s, Monaco, 18 June 1989, lot 862 (stamped by Montigny); and an unstamped example sold Christie’s, Monaco, 17 June 2000, lot 257 (FF 862,500).
This striking work table reflects the goût grec style introduced in the 1750's by the architect Louis-Joseph Le Lorrain. Probably working in collaboration with a marchand-mercier such as Simon-Philippe Poirier, Le Lorrain's goût grec style was first realized in the designs for the celebrated suite of furniture supplied for the Parisian hotel of the amateur Ange-Laurent Lalive de Jully circa 1755, which included the famous bureau plat and cartonnier now in the musée Condé at Chantilly. The stylized Greek key ornament of this table relates it to the well-documented group of bureaux à la Grecque of larger scale stamped by both Montigny and René Dubois, who were cousins and frequently collaborated (for examples by both makers see A. Pradère, Les Ébénistes Français de Louis XIV à la Révolution, Paris, 1989, p. 300, fig. 334 and p. 306, fig. 344). The tighter Greek key of this example is particularly distinctive and features on a bureau stamped by both Dubois and Cosson (sold from the collection of Segoura; Christie’s, New York, 19 October 2006, lot 115), demonstrating that ultimately a marchand-mercier was responsible for these stylish models.
Two virtually identical tables are recorded, both with lifting tops, but neither with marquetry to the top: one sold Sotheby’s, Monaco, 18 June 1989, lot 862 (stamped by Montigny); and an unstamped example sold Christie’s, Monaco, 17 June 2000, lot 257 (FF 862,500).