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Lot Essay
This as d'armoire is undoubtedly the production of a marchand-mercier, in all probability a member of the Julliot dynasty. Reconstructed in the 1780s from a narrow pier meuble d'appui to form a wider model commensurate with the changing tastes and picture hangs of the late 18th century amateurs, this commode may well be identifiable with that mentioned in the
'CATALOGUE DE TABLEAUX CAPITAUX ET D'OBJETS RARES ET CURIEUX DE MEUBLES DE MARQUETERIE DU CELEBRE BOULE, LE TOUT PROVENANT DES CABINETS DE M. LE CHEVALIER LAMBERT & DE M. DU PORAIL, PAR J.B. LE BRUN, DONT LA VENTE SE FERA RUE DE CLERYLE 27 MARS 1787 (Lugt 4164):-
'N0308. Un petit meuble de forme quarré long, à panneaux de marqueterie de cuivre & d'étain, celui du milieu, enrichi d'un médaillon de Henri IV, encadré de bronze à feuilles d'eau & sables, les côtés à panneaux unis ornés de masques de femmes, sont accompagnés de deux pilastres et de quatre gaines quarrées, ornées dans le haut de plates bandes à feuilles d'eau : la table est d'un marbre fin. Hauteur 34 pouces, largeur 30 pouces, saillie 17 pouces [92 x 81 x 45.9 cm.] [sold] for 900 livres to Langlier.'
Allowing for its original marble top, these measurements would appear to concur exactly. The subsequent alterations could have been carried out by a number of ébénistes working for Julliot, including Levasseur and Weisweiler, but in character it perhaps relates most closely to the work of Philippe-Claude Montigny (maître in 1766).
CASSIOBURY PARK
This commode is first categorically recorded in a photograph of the Inner Library at Cassiobury Park circa 1910. Cassiobury Park near Watford was an Elizabethan house that underwent two costly transformations, once under Hugh May in the 1680s and secondly under James Wyatt (d.1813) circa 1800. One of the great English treasure houses of the Regency period, its sumptous interiors, and indeed much of the Boulle furniture, are recorded in situ in a series of watercolours executed by William Henry Hunt in the early 1820s. Two of Hunt's watercolours were sold Christie's London, 14 November 1995, lots 69-70, that of the Drawing Room revealing Boulle meubles d'Appui, garnitures of ormolu-mounted porcelain, Boulle pedestals (sold at Christie's New York, 4 November 1992, lot 226) and candelabra by François Rémond. As the frontispiece to Christie's 1893 Cassiobury sale catalogue proudly declares, the French Furniture at Cassiobury was 'collected after the Great French Revolution by the Right Hon. George, Fifth Earl of Essex Who died in 1839'. Amongst the magnificent works of art sold in that 1893 sale were a set of four Boulle pedestals of the Hamilton palace model (lots 101-2), as well as a pair of Boulle meubles d'appui also mounted with profile medallions of Henri IV and Sully (lot 94) and a small pair of meubles d'appui raised on Regency stands.
Prince Puckler-Muskau visited Cassiobury in 1826 and commented: 'The castle is modern Gothic and splendidly furnished'; its popularity amongst the visiting cognoscenti, however, led to restrictions that the housekeeper was 'Not to shew the House to more than one set of company at a time'. Tragically Cassiobury was demolished in the 1920s, although its magnificent carved staircase attributed to Grinling Gibbons is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
'CATALOGUE DE TABLEAUX CAPITAUX ET D'OBJETS RARES ET CURIEUX DE MEUBLES DE MARQUETERIE DU CELEBRE BOULE, LE TOUT PROVENANT DES CABINETS DE M. LE CHEVALIER LAMBERT & DE M. DU PORAIL, PAR J.B. LE BRUN, DONT LA VENTE SE FERA RUE DE CLERYLE 27 MARS 1787 (Lugt 4164):-
'N0308. Un petit meuble de forme quarré long, à panneaux de marqueterie de cuivre & d'étain, celui du milieu, enrichi d'un médaillon de Henri IV, encadré de bronze à feuilles d'eau & sables, les côtés à panneaux unis ornés de masques de femmes, sont accompagnés de deux pilastres et de quatre gaines quarrées, ornées dans le haut de plates bandes à feuilles d'eau : la table est d'un marbre fin. Hauteur 34 pouces, largeur 30 pouces, saillie 17 pouces [92 x 81 x 45.9 cm.] [sold] for 900 livres to Langlier.'
Allowing for its original marble top, these measurements would appear to concur exactly. The subsequent alterations could have been carried out by a number of ébénistes working for Julliot, including Levasseur and Weisweiler, but in character it perhaps relates most closely to the work of Philippe-Claude Montigny (maître in 1766).
CASSIOBURY PARK
This commode is first categorically recorded in a photograph of the Inner Library at Cassiobury Park circa 1910. Cassiobury Park near Watford was an Elizabethan house that underwent two costly transformations, once under Hugh May in the 1680s and secondly under James Wyatt (d.1813) circa 1800. One of the great English treasure houses of the Regency period, its sumptous interiors, and indeed much of the Boulle furniture, are recorded in situ in a series of watercolours executed by William Henry Hunt in the early 1820s. Two of Hunt's watercolours were sold Christie's London, 14 November 1995, lots 69-70, that of the Drawing Room revealing Boulle meubles d'Appui, garnitures of ormolu-mounted porcelain, Boulle pedestals (sold at Christie's New York, 4 November 1992, lot 226) and candelabra by François Rémond. As the frontispiece to Christie's 1893 Cassiobury sale catalogue proudly declares, the French Furniture at Cassiobury was 'collected after the Great French Revolution by the Right Hon. George, Fifth Earl of Essex Who died in 1839'. Amongst the magnificent works of art sold in that 1893 sale were a set of four Boulle pedestals of the Hamilton palace model (lots 101-2), as well as a pair of Boulle meubles d'appui also mounted with profile medallions of Henri IV and Sully (lot 94) and a small pair of meubles d'appui raised on Regency stands.
Prince Puckler-Muskau visited Cassiobury in 1826 and commented: 'The castle is modern Gothic and splendidly furnished'; its popularity amongst the visiting cognoscenti, however, led to restrictions that the housekeeper was 'Not to shew the House to more than one set of company at a time'. Tragically Cassiobury was demolished in the 1920s, although its magnificent carved staircase attributed to Grinling Gibbons is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.