Lot Essay
The cabinet, incorporating a marquetry panel with a snake-handled flower-vase standing on a fruit-enriched plinth, is inspired by furniture in the 'antique' or 'Grecian' manner by Louis XVI's ebeniste J. H. Riesener (d. 1785).
A related meuble à hauteur d'appui by Guillaume Grohé (1808-1885) of rue de Varenne is illustrated in D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Mobilier Francais de XIX Siècle, Paris, 1989. p. 242. He supplied furniture to Napoleon III and Queen Victoria and was described in the Figaro, 19 January 1884, as 'maitre de l'ebenisterie artistique', who was a worthy successor to Riesener and the uncontested master of contemporary ebenisterie.
A related meuble à hauteur d'appui by Guillaume Grohé (1808-1885) of rue de Varenne is illustrated in D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Mobilier Francais de XIX Siècle, Paris, 1989. p. 242. He supplied furniture to Napoleon III and Queen Victoria and was described in the Figaro, 19 January 1884, as 'maitre de l'ebenisterie artistique', who was a worthy successor to Riesener and the uncontested master of contemporary ebenisterie.