Lot Essay
Jean Desforges, maître before 1730
The C couronné poinçon was a tax mark employed on any alloy containing copper between March 1745 and February 1749
Son of the ébéniste Michel Desforges, Jean Desforges married the sister of the ébéniste Pottier. Appointed maître ébéniste before 1730, he worked in the rue du Faubourg Saint Antoine. The brother-in-law of Guillaume Martin, maître peintre and vernisseur du Roi, Jean Desforges executed principally lacquer and japanned case furniture, almost certainly commissioned by a specific marchand-mercier, with a quality of construction characteristic of his oeuvre (see: M. Calin Demetiescu, L'Estampille/L'Objet d'art, October 1992)
Related by marriage to the Martin family of vernisseurs and uncle of the ciseleur Guillaume Desforges, who worked for Latz, it would seem most likely that the Martin family were the marchand-merciers who commissioned him, and that his nephew Guillaume Desforges provided the bronzes dorés
Desforges employed characteristic mounts which enables us to place this commode within a small related group. Identical chutes, sabots and apron mounts appear on a commode formerly in the collection of the duchesse de Richelieu (sold anonymously at Sotheby's New York, 15 October 1983, lot 497), similarly stamped with the C couronné and illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1989, p. 257, fig. c; another with C couronné mounts sold anonymously at Sotheby's New York, 9 November 1985, lot 351; and a further example, sold anonymously at Sotheby's New York, 15 October 1983, lot 472
A commode with identical apron-mount and chutes, together with a closely related frame, was reputedly given by Madame Adelaïde, Louis XV's sister, to the Genest family of Angouleme, (illustrated in J. Nicolay, L'Art et la Manière des Maîtres Ebénistes Français au XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1956, p. 147, fig. A)
Finally, the black lacquer commode from the Widener collection at the National Gallery of Art, Washington (Museum No. c.261, illustrated in H. Huth, Lacquer of the West, London, 1971, pl. 231), shares an identical escutcheon and closely related frame and chutes
A lacquer commode by Adrien Faizelot-Delorme from the Wrightsman Collection with identical escutcheons, frame, sabots and chutes, was evidently made on the cusp of the repeal of the 1749 tax, (FJB Watson, op. cit., no. 295, p.40-41)
A marquetry commode with extremely closely related mounts is stamped by the ébéniste Hubert Hansen and illustrated in W. Rieder, 'French Furniture of the ancien regime Apollo, February 1980, vol. CXI, no. 216, p. 50, fig. 5 (the captions transposed). As Rieder remarked, during his short career Hansen worked with the marchand-mercier Charles Darnault and it is likely that the mounts were supplied from a leading bronzier, conceivably Guillaume Desforges, probably through Darnault's assistance. That commodes angle mounts are in turn to be found on bureau plats by Joseph Baumhauer and Nicolas Pierre Severin
While the majority of the mounts, so characteristic of Desforges' oeuvre, were held in stock during the years 1745-9, the lack of the C couronné poinçon on the angle mounts can be explained by the need for them to be specially commissioned, the commode probably being executed shortly after the suspension of the tax in 1749
In her will of June 1912 Cecile de Rothschild left:-
'à ma bien chère Sybil Sassoon je donne en temoignage de ma tendresse
1. Commode L.XV lacque et or et bronzes dorés (Garde meuble)
What appears to be the commode can be seen in the portrait by Orpen of Philip and Sybil Sassoon in the Large Drawing Room at 25 Park Lane, which must have been painted in early 1913, before Sybil's marriage to the Earl of Rocksavage later that year. The picture records the room before Philip remodelled it and installed the Régence oak boiseries. Apart from the commode the picture shows a pair of candelabra that Sybil had inherited from her grandmother, so she must have placed them temporarily at Park Lane prior to her marriage
The C couronné poinçon was a tax mark employed on any alloy containing copper between March 1745 and February 1749
Son of the ébéniste Michel Desforges, Jean Desforges married the sister of the ébéniste Pottier. Appointed maître ébéniste before 1730, he worked in the rue du Faubourg Saint Antoine. The brother-in-law of Guillaume Martin, maître peintre and vernisseur du Roi, Jean Desforges executed principally lacquer and japanned case furniture, almost certainly commissioned by a specific marchand-mercier, with a quality of construction characteristic of his oeuvre (see: M. Calin Demetiescu, L'Estampille/L'Objet d'art, October 1992)
Related by marriage to the Martin family of vernisseurs and uncle of the ciseleur Guillaume Desforges, who worked for Latz, it would seem most likely that the Martin family were the marchand-merciers who commissioned him, and that his nephew Guillaume Desforges provided the bronzes dorés
Desforges employed characteristic mounts which enables us to place this commode within a small related group. Identical chutes, sabots and apron mounts appear on a commode formerly in the collection of the duchesse de Richelieu (sold anonymously at Sotheby's New York, 15 October 1983, lot 497), similarly stamped with the C couronné and illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1989, p. 257, fig. c; another with C couronné mounts sold anonymously at Sotheby's New York, 9 November 1985, lot 351; and a further example, sold anonymously at Sotheby's New York, 15 October 1983, lot 472
A commode with identical apron-mount and chutes, together with a closely related frame, was reputedly given by Madame Adelaïde, Louis XV's sister, to the Genest family of Angouleme, (illustrated in J. Nicolay, L'Art et la Manière des Maîtres Ebénistes Français au XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1956, p. 147, fig. A)
Finally, the black lacquer commode from the Widener collection at the National Gallery of Art, Washington (Museum No. c.261, illustrated in H. Huth, Lacquer of the West, London, 1971, pl. 231), shares an identical escutcheon and closely related frame and chutes
A lacquer commode by Adrien Faizelot-Delorme from the Wrightsman Collection with identical escutcheons, frame, sabots and chutes, was evidently made on the cusp of the repeal of the 1749 tax, (FJB Watson, op. cit., no. 295, p.40-41)
A marquetry commode with extremely closely related mounts is stamped by the ébéniste Hubert Hansen and illustrated in W. Rieder, 'French Furniture of the ancien regime Apollo, February 1980, vol. CXI, no. 216, p. 50, fig. 5 (the captions transposed). As Rieder remarked, during his short career Hansen worked with the marchand-mercier Charles Darnault and it is likely that the mounts were supplied from a leading bronzier, conceivably Guillaume Desforges, probably through Darnault's assistance. That commodes angle mounts are in turn to be found on bureau plats by Joseph Baumhauer and Nicolas Pierre Severin
While the majority of the mounts, so characteristic of Desforges' oeuvre, were held in stock during the years 1745-9, the lack of the C couronné poinçon on the angle mounts can be explained by the need for them to be specially commissioned, the commode probably being executed shortly after the suspension of the tax in 1749
In her will of June 1912 Cecile de Rothschild left:-
'à ma bien chère Sybil Sassoon je donne en temoignage de ma tendresse
1. Commode L.XV lacque et or et bronzes dorés (Garde meuble)
What appears to be the commode can be seen in the portrait by Orpen of Philip and Sybil Sassoon in the Large Drawing Room at 25 Park Lane, which must have been painted in early 1913, before Sybil's marriage to the Earl of Rocksavage later that year. The picture records the room before Philip remodelled it and installed the Régence oak boiseries. Apart from the commode the picture shows a pair of candelabra that Sybil had inherited from her grandmother, so she must have placed them temporarily at Park Lane prior to her marriage