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Lot Essay
Jean-Pierre Latz, (b.1691) active from 1719 to 1754).
One of the most important cabinet-makers of the Louis XV period, Latz was born in Cologne and moved to Paris in 1719, where in 1739 he married Marie-Madeliene Seignet, the daughter of a well-connected property developer. His business evidently prospered as by 1741 he was appointed ébéniste privilegié du roy, which enabled him to exercise his profession without entering the guild as a master. Like the renowned cabinet-maker Charles Cressent before him, Latz also contravened guild regulations by casting his own bronzes. His work is characterized by rich floral marquetry, either in naturalistic foliate clusters, or as on the sumptuous Dreesmann table, elegant floral trails executed in bois de bout marquetry.
The Dreesmann table is of an unusually large scale and with particularly rich decoration for a games table, indicating an important commission. It is interesting to note that very few pieces by Latz are known with a French provenance, with the exception of a significant group of pieces executed for the duc de Penthièvre (including the superb table à la Bourgogne in this sale, lot 240). However, many pieces by Latz are in princely German collections, including examples in Berlin and Dresden ordered in Paris from Latz by Frederick II of Prussia and Augustus III of Saxony, commissions which were evidently facilitated by Latz's German origins.
One of the most important cabinet-makers of the Louis XV period, Latz was born in Cologne and moved to Paris in 1719, where in 1739 he married Marie-Madeliene Seignet, the daughter of a well-connected property developer. His business evidently prospered as by 1741 he was appointed ébéniste privilegié du roy, which enabled him to exercise his profession without entering the guild as a master. Like the renowned cabinet-maker Charles Cressent before him, Latz also contravened guild regulations by casting his own bronzes. His work is characterized by rich floral marquetry, either in naturalistic foliate clusters, or as on the sumptuous Dreesmann table, elegant floral trails executed in bois de bout marquetry.
The Dreesmann table is of an unusually large scale and with particularly rich decoration for a games table, indicating an important commission. It is interesting to note that very few pieces by Latz are known with a French provenance, with the exception of a significant group of pieces executed for the duc de Penthièvre (including the superb table à la Bourgogne in this sale, lot 240). However, many pieces by Latz are in princely German collections, including examples in Berlin and Dresden ordered in Paris from Latz by Frederick II of Prussia and Augustus III of Saxony, commissions which were evidently facilitated by Latz's German origins.