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Lot Essay
Daniel De Loose, mâitre in 1767.
THE COMMISSION
This matched pair of commodes includes the Royal commode delivered by Gilles Joubert to the Comte and Comtesse de Provence at the château de Marly on 27 May 1771. This is confirmed by the Garde-Meuble inventory, which the number No2613 on the back of the Royal commode refers to. These records show that this commode was originally one of a pair, a point underlined by the letter B and the number 2 inscribed alongside the Garde-Meuble inventory numbers. The records also show that both commodes had the same white marble tops and identical dimensions.
The second number on the back of the Royal commode, M.No.97, refers to the Château de Marly's inventory, which was implemented after the administrative reform of 1784 and established by Thierry de Ville d'Avray. By 1788, the two commodes were located in the bedroom of the Comte de Provence where they were succinctly described as "Deux commodes en bois de marqueterie 2.000".
As for the number 97, a partial reconstruction of the Marly inventory situates furniture in the Queen's appartements around the numbers 50 and 84. The number 22 refers to a commode placed in one of the Prince's pavilions (the bedroom of Madame Adélaïde). The number 97 could very well refer to the Provence apartments which in the Etiquette à Marly were situated after those of the King and the Queen.
The first commode, according to the bill, was delivered for the Comte de Provence's appartements at Marly. As for its pair, it was meant for his wife's grand cabinet.
The price that was charged for these two commodes was 2.600 livres each, an amount to which was added the price of two brêche d'Alep marbles at 120 livres a piece. Yet the Garde-Meuble inventory mentions a white-veined marble, which the Royal commode retains today with its Garde -Meuble inventory number.
Was the ébéniste's clerk who wrote up the bill mistaken when writing up the records six months later? In January of 1772, according to the common practice of the administration of the Garde-Meuble, the price of the two commodes was reduced and 2.460 livres was paid for each commode and 100 livres for each marble or could both of these commodes conceivably be Royal, one somehow escaping being numbered by both the Garde-Meuble and Marly inventory, perhaps because it was one of a pair?
The accounts of Gilles Joubert provide some further suplementary details. This order was given on May 24th 1771 and the two commodes were delivered to the Garde-Meuble three days later. This unbelievably short turn around time implies that Joubert went to one of his colleagues and must have found a pair of commodes by Deloose that corresponded in dimensions and decoration to the requirements of the Royal administration. The Royal commode belongs to a distinguished group almost exclusively supplied by Gilles Joubert in his capacity as fournisseur du Garde-Meuble. As G. Wilson noted in Selection from the Decorative Arts in the J.Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1983, p.60, no.30, Joubert was already in his early 80's when this group was delivered to the Garde-Meuble. This fact, together with the enormous number of commissions from the Garde-Meuble from the late 1760's clearly explains why Joubert chose to play more of a supervisory role, sub-contracting much of the work to his confrères. Interestingly, between 1748 and 1774 Joubert delivered more than 4,000 pieces of furniture to the Garde-Meuble, no less than 169 of which were supplied in 1771, the same year as the Provenence commodes.
Daniel Deloose used this type of boxed quatre-feuille marquetry on numerous commodes. These include: Anonymous sale, Christie's New York, 1 November 1989, lot 145; a Secretaire from the Dournovo Collection, sold Paris 3 December 1993, lot 105; anonymous sale, Sotheby's Monaco, 18 June 1994, lot 255; anonymous sale, Geneva, 23 June 1995, lot 30.
Daniel Deloose also delivered through Joubert, on 16 July 1774, a commode which was the first piece of furniture delivered to the new sovereign Marie-Antoinette (Anonymous sale, Sotheby's Monaco, 21 June, 1987, lot 967).
THE VIENNESE ROTHSCHILDS
These commodes are inscribed with the Rothschild (AR.567.50) inventory numbers and a label from Reichenau, the immense castle built in 1883 in Lower-Austria commissioned by Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild (1836-1905). Unless both these commodes had in fact always stayed together since their manufacture, the Rothschilds unwittingly echoed the sentiments of the original 1771 Royal commission exactly, by purchasing the companion commode stamped Daniel Deloose to form a pair in the 19th century. It had been Anselm, Nathaniel's father, who had firmly established the Rothschild business interests in Austria and undertook several building projects. Shortly before Anselm's death his three sons had begun projects of their own. Nathaniel, the eldest, began the creation of a 'considerable mansion' on Theresianumgasse in Vienna. Ferdinand (1839-1898) left for England and in 1873 had started the construction of Waddesdon Manor and Albert (1844-1911) had commissioned Hippolyte Destailleur to build another immense mansion, virtually opposite his brother in Vienna. Of the three brothers, it was Nathaniel and Ferdinand who were the most avid collectors, strengthening what their father had already obtained. They both died childless and consequently their property was passed to their brother Albert and, subsequently, his children. The inventory initials 'AR' found on these commodes are for those items passed onto Alphonse de Rothschild (b.1878), much of which was siezed by the Third Reich in 1938. For a fuller discussion of the extraordinary collections of the Viennese Rothschilds, see the catalogue of Christie's landmark sale of the collection of the Barons Nathaniel and Albert von Rothschild, 8 July 1999.
THE COMMISSION
This matched pair of commodes includes the Royal commode delivered by Gilles Joubert to the Comte and Comtesse de Provence at the château de Marly on 27 May 1771. This is confirmed by the Garde-Meuble inventory, which the number No2613 on the back of the Royal commode refers to. These records show that this commode was originally one of a pair, a point underlined by the letter B and the number 2 inscribed alongside the Garde-Meuble inventory numbers. The records also show that both commodes had the same white marble tops and identical dimensions.
The second number on the back of the Royal commode, M.No.97, refers to the Château de Marly's inventory, which was implemented after the administrative reform of 1784 and established by Thierry de Ville d'Avray. By 1788, the two commodes were located in the bedroom of the Comte de Provence where they were succinctly described as "Deux commodes en bois de marqueterie 2.000".
As for the number 97, a partial reconstruction of the Marly inventory situates furniture in the Queen's appartements around the numbers 50 and 84. The number 22 refers to a commode placed in one of the Prince's pavilions (the bedroom of Madame Adélaïde). The number 97 could very well refer to the Provence apartments which in the Etiquette à Marly were situated after those of the King and the Queen.
The first commode, according to the bill, was delivered for the Comte de Provence's appartements at Marly. As for its pair, it was meant for his wife's grand cabinet.
The price that was charged for these two commodes was 2.600 livres each, an amount to which was added the price of two brêche d'Alep marbles at 120 livres a piece. Yet the Garde-Meuble inventory mentions a white-veined marble, which the Royal commode retains today with its Garde -Meuble inventory number.
Was the ébéniste's clerk who wrote up the bill mistaken when writing up the records six months later? In January of 1772, according to the common practice of the administration of the Garde-Meuble, the price of the two commodes was reduced and 2.460 livres was paid for each commode and 100 livres for each marble or could both of these commodes conceivably be Royal, one somehow escaping being numbered by both the Garde-Meuble and Marly inventory, perhaps because it was one of a pair?
The accounts of Gilles Joubert provide some further suplementary details. This order was given on May 24th 1771 and the two commodes were delivered to the Garde-Meuble three days later. This unbelievably short turn around time implies that Joubert went to one of his colleagues and must have found a pair of commodes by Deloose that corresponded in dimensions and decoration to the requirements of the Royal administration. The Royal commode belongs to a distinguished group almost exclusively supplied by Gilles Joubert in his capacity as fournisseur du Garde-Meuble. As G. Wilson noted in Selection from the Decorative Arts in the J.Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1983, p.60, no.30, Joubert was already in his early 80's when this group was delivered to the Garde-Meuble. This fact, together with the enormous number of commissions from the Garde-Meuble from the late 1760's clearly explains why Joubert chose to play more of a supervisory role, sub-contracting much of the work to his confrères. Interestingly, between 1748 and 1774 Joubert delivered more than 4,000 pieces of furniture to the Garde-Meuble, no less than 169 of which were supplied in 1771, the same year as the Provenence commodes.
Daniel Deloose used this type of boxed quatre-feuille marquetry on numerous commodes. These include: Anonymous sale, Christie's New York, 1 November 1989, lot 145; a Secretaire from the Dournovo Collection, sold Paris 3 December 1993, lot 105; anonymous sale, Sotheby's Monaco, 18 June 1994, lot 255; anonymous sale, Geneva, 23 June 1995, lot 30.
Daniel Deloose also delivered through Joubert, on 16 July 1774, a commode which was the first piece of furniture delivered to the new sovereign Marie-Antoinette (Anonymous sale, Sotheby's Monaco, 21 June, 1987, lot 967).
THE VIENNESE ROTHSCHILDS
These commodes are inscribed with the Rothschild (AR.567.50) inventory numbers and a label from Reichenau, the immense castle built in 1883 in Lower-Austria commissioned by Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild (1836-1905). Unless both these commodes had in fact always stayed together since their manufacture, the Rothschilds unwittingly echoed the sentiments of the original 1771 Royal commission exactly, by purchasing the companion commode stamped Daniel Deloose to form a pair in the 19th century. It had been Anselm, Nathaniel's father, who had firmly established the Rothschild business interests in Austria and undertook several building projects. Shortly before Anselm's death his three sons had begun projects of their own. Nathaniel, the eldest, began the creation of a 'considerable mansion' on Theresianumgasse in Vienna. Ferdinand (1839-1898) left for England and in 1873 had started the construction of Waddesdon Manor and Albert (1844-1911) had commissioned Hippolyte Destailleur to build another immense mansion, virtually opposite his brother in Vienna. Of the three brothers, it was Nathaniel and Ferdinand who were the most avid collectors, strengthening what their father had already obtained. They both died childless and consequently their property was passed to their brother Albert and, subsequently, his children. The inventory initials 'AR' found on these commodes are for those items passed onto Alphonse de Rothschild (b.1878), much of which was siezed by the Third Reich in 1938. For a fuller discussion of the extraordinary collections of the Viennese Rothschilds, see the catalogue of Christie's landmark sale of the collection of the Barons Nathaniel and Albert von Rothschild, 8 July 1999.