CIRCA 1725, POSSIBLY BY FRANÇOIS LIEUTAUD

With its reeded pulls, sunflower-paterae to the shaped sides and scrolled-acanthus sabots, this commode relates to the oeuvre of François Lieutaud (d.1748). Born in 1665 to a family of sculptors, Lieutaud was elected maître in Marseille and in 1710 he moved to join his son in the Cloister of St. Jean Lateran. Lieutaud unusually owned the moulds for his own bronzes, and thus several distinctive mounts recur throughout his oeuvre. Related commodes include that in the Louvre, illustrated in P. Verlet, Les Ebénistes Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1987, p.36; another in the Residenz, Ansbach; another sold anonymously at Christie's London, 10 June 1993, lot 44; another from the collection of M. Hubert de Givenchy, sold Christie's Monaco, 3 December 1993, lot 87a; and a final example, but with reshaped angles, sold from the collection of M. Akram Ojjeh, Christie's Monaco, 11-12 December 1999, lot 16.