A LATE LOUIS XV MAHOGANY PUPITRE A MUSIQUE
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A LATE LOUIS XV MAHOGANY PUPITRE A MUSIQUE

BY JOSEPH GENGENBACH, CALLED CANABAS

Details
A LATE LOUIS XV MAHOGANY PUPITRE A MUSIQUE
By Joseph Gengenbach, called Canabas
With rounded rectangular hinged easel top with hinged lower lip, the rising easel with a candlestand to each side, with later ormolu candle-holders, a drawer at each end and a double-hinged slide at the front, a pen drawer at the reverse, on a telescopic hexagonal shaft and tripod base with brass castors, stamped 'CANABAS' three times and 'JME' once, and with one later stamp 'CANABA'
30¼ in. (77 cm.) high; 20 in. (51 cm.) wide; 14¾ in. (48 cm.) deep
Joseph Gengenbach, called Canabas, maître in 1766.
Provenance
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, Monaco, 8 February 1981, lot 263 (to Dreesmann).
Dr Anton C.R. Dreesmann (inventory no. D-106).
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

This attractive music-stand was conceived in the fashionable goût anglais of the 1770s. Just like mahogany tables à thé, the inspiration for the tripod base, and, in this case, also the top which could be raised on a shaft, came from mid-18th century English prototypes. One of the foremost exponents of this style was Joseph Gengebach, known as Canabas, who specialized in such useful, portable pieces of furniture in rich superior mahogany.
A series of letters exchanged between the marquis de Marigny, Directeur Général des Bâtiments, Jardins, Arts, Académies et manufactures Royales from 1751-1773 and the ébéniste Pierre Garnier document this taste for furniture a l'anglaise among sophisticated Parisian patrons. Marigny mentions, for example, a toilette d'homme a l'angloise which he wishes to have embellished, and a pair of 'tables de piquet' which he purchased in London and wished to have copied by Garnier (see S. Eriksen, 'Some Letters from the Marquis de Marigny to his Cabinet-maker Pierre Garnier', Furniture History Society Journal 1972, p. 78-81).
An almost identical pupitre à crémaillé is illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1998, p. 145.

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