BY FRÉDÉRIC SCHMIT, PARIS, THIRD QUARTER 19TH CENTURY

Details

A LOUIS XV STYLE ORMOLU-MOUNTED KINGWOOD AND MAHOGANY BUREAU PLAT
By Frédéric Schmit, Paris, Third quarter 19th Century
The serpentine shaped top with stepped ormolu edge and inset with a gilt-tooled tan leather writing surface, above shaped sides, the front fitted with three drawers with foliate and floral handles and escutcheons, the similarly mounted reverse with apparent drawers, the ends applied with central shell and seaweed mount, on tapering cabriole legs headed by alternating male and female warrior busts and terminating in acanthus-cast lion-paw feet, the central drawer lock-plate stamped S. SCHMIT/2 R DE CHARONNE/PARIS
30¼ in. (77 cm.) high; 71 in. (180.5 cm.) wide; 39¼ in. (100 cm.) deep

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

One of the great Parisian cabinet makers, Frédéric Schmit specialised in producing high quality furnishings and meubles de fantaisie. Throughout his career he appears to have worked in the centre of the furniture-making district, the Faubourg St Antoine. He received Gold Medals at the 1878 and 1889 Expositions Universelles in Paris, and was always considered to make pieces of the finest quality.

This bureau plat displays 'Venus' shell cartouches at either end and hermed busts of heroic figures evoking ancient virtue. Related busts of Mars, the war and peace-bearing god, and the goddess Minerva, defender of the Arts of Peace, have been attributed to the marchand-ébéniste Charles Cressent (d.1768) and feature on a bureau sold in 1788 from the duc of Richelieu's collection. (see A. Pradère, French Furniture Makers, London, 1989, p. 131).

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