Lot Essay
This bureau plat displays many of the essential characteristics found on the bureaux plat which can be confidently attributed to André Charles Boulle. It was undoubtedly made by an ébéniste with a thorough knowledge of Boulle's oeuvre and may indeed be from the workshop of his sons, Boulle fils. Boulle's bureaux plat divide into three basic groups. The first group, which is also probably the earliest, has six legs and derives from a twin design in plate III of Mariette's folio of Boulle's engravings published between 1707 and 1730, 'Nouveaux dessins... chez Mariette'. Two examples are known, one formerly in the collection of the Earls of Ashburnham and sold by M. Hubert Givenchy, Christie's Monaco, 4 December 1993, lot 68, the other sold from the collection of Randon de Boisset in 1777 and now at Vaux-le-Vicomte (A. Pradère, French Furniture Makers, London, 1989, p. 77). The second group, with projecting central drawer probably derives from a drawing in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs attributed to Boulle (A. Pradère, op. cit., p. 83). The most accomplished example is the bureau plat at Boughton House. The third and largest group, which can be further sub-divided on the basis of mounts, is distinguished by its recessed cental drawer, as appears on that in the Getty Museum (A. Pradère, op. cit., p. 78) and the Wallace Collection (F.J.B. Watson, The Wallace Collection Catalogues: Furniture, London, 1956, no. F427).
This bureau plat represents a transitional stage in the development of the bureau plat, just before its transformation into the Régence bureau plat as represented by Boulle's third group discussed above. It retains from the first group the drawers of almost equal length and the flower-filled latticewok of the mounts flanking the central drawer; in addition the profile of the two flanking drawers retains a longer and less pronounced sweep. The overall shape is closest to that of the third group with its narrower frieze and recessed central drawer. The distinctive mounts and legs appear on both the second and third groups. The mounts depicting Apollo and Democritus, the satyr-mask angle-mounts and the sabots are standard Boulle mounts and occur frequently on his work. At least four other bureaux plat are know which combine masks of either Democritus or Heraclitus with those of Apollo or Daphne together with satyr as opposed to female angle-mounts. Of these, one formerly in the collection of Sir Phillip Sassoon was sold by the Marquess of Cholmondeley, in these Rooms, Works of Art from Houghton, 8 December 1994, lot 31.
This bureau plat represents a transitional stage in the development of the bureau plat, just before its transformation into the Régence bureau plat as represented by Boulle's third group discussed above. It retains from the first group the drawers of almost equal length and the flower-filled latticewok of the mounts flanking the central drawer; in addition the profile of the two flanking drawers retains a longer and less pronounced sweep. The overall shape is closest to that of the third group with its narrower frieze and recessed central drawer. The distinctive mounts and legs appear on both the second and third groups. The mounts depicting Apollo and Democritus, the satyr-mask angle-mounts and the sabots are standard Boulle mounts and occur frequently on his work. At least four other bureaux plat are know which combine masks of either Democritus or Heraclitus with those of Apollo or Daphne together with satyr as opposed to female angle-mounts. Of these, one formerly in the collection of Sir Phillip Sassoon was sold by the Marquess of Cholmondeley, in these Rooms, Works of Art from Houghton, 8 December 1994, lot 31.