Lot Essay
Roger Vandercruse, known as Lacroix, maître in 1755.
The distinctive 'naif' marquetry of teapots, vessels, flower-filled vases and urns, inspired by the ornamental borders of Chinese coromandel lacquer screens, is characteristic of the work of the ébéniste and specialist marqueteur Charles Topino. Based in the rue Faubourg-Saint-Antoine, Topino - as his daybook reveals - is known to have supplied marquetry panels of this type for his confrères, the marchand-ébénistes, who then sold them on as their own (A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes Français de Louis XIV à la Revolution, Paris, 1989, p. 319). Roger Vandercruse did not make use of Topino's marquetry panels, but almost certainly executed these in his own atelier. Only purchases of ebony from Topino are listed in his Livre-Journal. His examples of 'naif' marquetry are indeed highly individual both in choice of objets and arrangement, and these are clearly his own invention (C. Roinet, Roger Vandercruse dit La Croix 1727-1799, Paris, 2000, p. 64).
This model of bonheur-du-jour was clearly developed by 1775, as the ébéniste du Roi Gilles Joubert (d. 1775) delivered 'Un petit secrétaire de bois de rose représentant des paniers de fleurs, fruits, theyers et tasses façon de la Chine...' to the Garde-Meuble for the use of the comte d'Artois at Compiègne (A. Pradère, op. cit., Paris, 1989, p. 320).
A related bonheur-du-jour by Charles Topino in the National Museum in Stockholm is illustrated in S. Barbier Sainte Marie, 'Charles Topino', L'Estampille L'Objet d'Art, 10 (1999), p. 38, fig. 5. Further related examples were sold from the collection of Mrs James de Rothschild, Christie's London, 2 December 1971, lot 129, and anonymously at Christie's London, 9 December 1993, lot 86 (£72,000).
The distinctive 'naif' marquetry of teapots, vessels, flower-filled vases and urns, inspired by the ornamental borders of Chinese coromandel lacquer screens, is characteristic of the work of the ébéniste and specialist marqueteur Charles Topino. Based in the rue Faubourg-Saint-Antoine, Topino - as his daybook reveals - is known to have supplied marquetry panels of this type for his confrères, the marchand-ébénistes, who then sold them on as their own (A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes Français de Louis XIV à la Revolution, Paris, 1989, p. 319). Roger Vandercruse did not make use of Topino's marquetry panels, but almost certainly executed these in his own atelier. Only purchases of ebony from Topino are listed in his Livre-Journal. His examples of 'naif' marquetry are indeed highly individual both in choice of objets and arrangement, and these are clearly his own invention (C. Roinet, Roger Vandercruse dit La Croix 1727-1799, Paris, 2000, p. 64).
This model of bonheur-du-jour was clearly developed by 1775, as the ébéniste du Roi Gilles Joubert (d. 1775) delivered 'Un petit secrétaire de bois de rose représentant des paniers de fleurs, fruits, theyers et tasses façon de la Chine...' to the Garde-Meuble for the use of the comte d'Artois at Compiègne (A. Pradère, op. cit., Paris, 1989, p. 320).
A related bonheur-du-jour by Charles Topino in the National Museum in Stockholm is illustrated in S. Barbier Sainte Marie, 'Charles Topino', L'Estampille L'Objet d'Art, 10 (1999), p. 38, fig. 5. Further related examples were sold from the collection of Mrs James de Rothschild, Christie's London, 2 December 1971, lot 129, and anonymously at Christie's London, 9 December 1993, lot 86 (£72,000).