IN THE MANNER OF NICOLAS SAGEOT, EXTENDED IN WIDTH IN THE MID-19TH CENTURY BY 8 IN., PRESUMABLY FOR STRENGTHENING, AND WITH CONSEQUENTIAL ALTERATIONS

Designed in the Louis XIV 'antique' manner developed by André-Charles Boulle and Jean Bérain, this armoire is stylistically close to the oeuvre of the ébéniste Nicolas Sageot, discussed by Pierre Grand in 'Le Mobilier Boulle et les ateliers de l'époque', L'Estampille/L'Objet d'Art, February, 1993, pp. 48-70. On the 26 July 1720 Sageot sold 16,000 livres worth of furniture to the marchand-mercier Léonard Prieur, amongst which were several 'armoires à dôme' in brass-inlaid tortoiseshell, valued between 400 and 1000 livres. Although Sageot's production is scantily documented, an armoire displaying similar marquetry panels with cut-cornered lambrequinned panels to the lower doors is illustrated in P. Kjelberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1989, p. 767, whilst a further pair, stamped 'N.S.', displaying the same characteristics, was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 17 June 1987, lot 65 (£143,000). The latter pair is now in a New York Private Collection.