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Lot Essay
These striking commodes are almost certainly the work of René Dubois (d. 1792) who received his maîtrise in 1757, but whose oeuvre is virtually unknown. Dubois was recorded in the rue de la Verrerie and, one believes, was the cousin of the other René Dubois, son of the celebrated Parisian ébéniste Jacques Dubois. Jacques' son René Dubois, who received his maîtrise in 1755 when he was only eighteen years old, worked for his father and continued to use his father's stamp of 'I DUBOIS' even after his death in 1763; the Comte de Salverte speculated in Les Ébénistes du XVIIIeme Siècle (Paris, 1953, p.99) he might have done so in order to distinguish his work from that of his namesake.
Such commodes brilliantly decorated 'à la Chinoise' would have been designed to accompany the beautiful wall-papers of Chinese scenes being imported by the leading marchands merciers. Such exotic Chinese images were inspired by a variety of sources such as the engravings issued in the 1730s by the artist Jean-Antoine Fraisse and entitled 'Livre de Desseins Chinois'. (S. Miller, 'Jean-Antoine Fraisse at Chantilly: circa 1729-36', Apollo, November 2001, pp.3-12). The garden chariot, which also appeared in 17th Century 'India' figure tapestries, had been popularised by an engraving of The Japanese Maid-of-Honor's Chariot in Arnold Montanus, Atlas Japannensis, first published in Holland in 1669 (E. Standen, English Tapestries after the Indian Manner, Metropolitan Museum Journal, 1981, pp.119-142, and fig.30).
Such commodes brilliantly decorated 'à la Chinoise' would have been designed to accompany the beautiful wall-papers of Chinese scenes being imported by the leading marchands merciers. Such exotic Chinese images were inspired by a variety of sources such as the engravings issued in the 1730s by the artist Jean-Antoine Fraisse and entitled 'Livre de Desseins Chinois'. (S. Miller, 'Jean-Antoine Fraisse at Chantilly: circa 1729-36', Apollo, November 2001, pp.3-12). The garden chariot, which also appeared in 17th Century 'India' figure tapestries, had been popularised by an engraving of The Japanese Maid-of-Honor's Chariot in Arnold Montanus, Atlas Japannensis, first published in Holland in 1669 (E. Standen, English Tapestries after the Indian Manner, Metropolitan Museum Journal, 1981, pp.119-142, and fig.30).