PROPERTY FROM A NEW YORK ESTATE (Lots 666-667) The following two secretaires offered as lots 666 and 667 may have been conceived as two pendants. It is interesting to note that there are a few examples of such counterparts (tambour and abattant) conceived by RVLC, although none remain together. The offered secretaires have apparently spent some time apart as their conditions are slightly different. Further there are minor constructional differences, particularly to the backs. THE ATTRIBUTION TO LACROIX AND BOUDIN These two secretaires with characteristic floral marquetry to both their exteriors and fitted interiors belong to a distinctive group almost certainly attributed to Roger Vandercruse (dit Lacroix or RVLC) and supplied through the intervention of the marchand-ébéniste Léonard Boudin. Several examples of both models are known, however the offered lot remarkably unites the two versions which generally survive only individually. Established in the Cloître Saint Germain l'Auxerrois, Léonard Boudin became a marchand-ébéniste in 1772 and his oeuvre is arguably one of the most prolific of the Transitional period. Employing such ébénistes as Foullet, Denizot, Topino and Lacroix, his stamp as marchand often appears alongside of the maker or as retailer of the model as occurs on several known examples of secretaires similar to the offered lots. A 'grossiste du meuble' who possessed an enormous stock and often rented furniture to private clients, he counted such figures as the duc de Duras, the Prince of Orange and the duchesse d'Arenberg as his principal patrons. However, by 1777 his debts amounted to the colossal sum of 248,340 livres while his assets did not exceed 10,000 livres. COMPARABLE EXAMPLES A number of secretaires of highly similar design to both models are known, including the following particularly noteworthy examples: -A secretaire à abattant with figural chinoiserie marquetry sold from the celebrated collection of Paul Dutasta, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 3-4 June 1926, lot 155 and again anonymously at Sotheby's Monaco, 14 June 1982, lot 399. The Dutasta catalogue describes it as stamped by J. Dubois but it is subsequently described as stamped RVLC (C. Roinet, Roger Vandercruse dit Lacroix, Paris, 2000, pp. 59 and 116, fig. 20). -The counterpart tambour secretaire to the Dutasta example with identical interior and mounts sold by the Trustees of the 2nd Baron Llangattock, Christie's London, 27 November 1958, lot 126. - A secretaire à abattant with floral marquetry stamped by Boudin sold from the collection of Mrs. T. Chrysler Foy, Sotheby Parke-Bernet, 16 May 1959, lot 323 and again from the Estate of Frances Sachar, Sotheby's New York, 25 May 2000, lot 286. -A secretaire à abattant with floral marquetry and satyrs mask mounts stamped Boudin is in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art and is illustrated in A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes Français, Paris, 1987, p. 271. -A tambour secretaire formerly in the collection of Madame de Polés is now in the Musée du Petit Palais, Paris and is illustrated in G. Janneau, Le Meuble Leger en France, Paris, 1952, fig's. 89-91. -An example from the Grog Craven bequest attributed to RVLC is in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. MARTHA BAIRD ROCKEFELLER Martha Baird (1895 - 1971), concert pianist and philanthropist, married her third husband, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., on August 15, 1951. "Junior" at seventy-seven years of age, was twenty-one years her senior. Her relations with his six children were cordial; the younger generation of Rockefellers called their stepmother "Aunt Martha." She and Rockefeller spent winters in Tucson, Arizona, summers in Seal Harbor, Maine, and fall and spring at the 3,500-acre Rockefeller estate in suburban Pocantico, N.Y., with occasional visits to Basset Hall in Colonial Williamsburg. Upon her husband's death, she became a trustee of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, to which John D. Rockefeller, Jr., bequeathed half his $150-million estate. The other half of his estate was given to Martha Rockefeller. Martha Baird Rockefeller was the single largest contributor to the political campaigns of her stepson, Nelson A. Rockefeller, and she gave him her late husband's estate, Kykuit, to live in when Nelson Rockefeller became governor of New York. Property from her estate, including the secretaires in the offered lot, was sold in an illustrious series of sales at Parke-Bernet Galleries in New York in 1971.

A LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD, AMARANTH AND FLORAL MARQUETRY SECRETAIRE A ABATTANT

CIRCA 1750, ATTRIBUTED TO ROGER VANDERCRUSE, DIT LACROIX AND PROBABLY SUPPLIED BY THE MARCHAND-ÉBÉNISTE LÉONARD BOUDIN

Details

A LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD, AMARANTH AND FLORAL MARQUETRY SECRETAIRE A ABATTANT
Circa 1750, attributed to Roger Vandercruse, dit Lacroix and probably supplied by the marchand-ébéniste Léonard Boudin
The waved and molded brêche d'alep marble top, above the shaped fall-front enclosing to the reverse a red velvet-lined writing-surface and a tulipwood-lined interior with three compartments and four shaped short drawers, one fitted with silvered ink, sand and tray, above two doors enclosing three drawers, the lower one with coffre-fort, the angles with foliate scrolls, above short cabriole legs with foliate sabot, variously with label inscribed 'THE ANTIQUE COMPANY OF NEW YORK, INC. THE ANTIQUE PORCELAIN CO NEW YORK', with pencil inscription to top '16779', the marble top indisctincly stenciled to underside '71', with various indistinct pencil inscriptions, with restored break to corner of marble top
20½in. (113cm.) high, 26½in. (67cm.) wide, 15½in. (39cm.) deep

Provenance

Purchased by John D. Rockefeller Jr. from the New York Dealers Parish-Watson & Co. probably in 1929.
Martha Baird Rockefeller, sold Parke-Bernet Galleries, 23 October 1971, lots 709 and 710 ($ 30,000 excluding premium each).
Acquired from The Antique Porcelain Company, New York.

Lot Essay

Roger Vandercruse dit Lacroix, maître in 1755.
Léonard Boudin, maître in 1761.

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