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Lot Essay
Bernard Molitor, maître in 1787.
Ulrich Leben's comprehensive research on Bernard Molitor demonstrates the diversity of the oeuvre of this talented ébéniste, who was active from the end of the ancien régime until approximately 1818 (U.Leben, Molitor, New York, 1992, p. 32). His most accomplished early work is the mahogany furniture executed around 1790 which relate to Jean-Henri Riesener's restrained mahogany furniture and Leben suggests that there might have been professional ties between the two (U.Leben, op. cit., p. 17). Shortly after, between 1790 and 1803, Molitor executed an important group of furniture, in mahogany and sumptuously decorated with lacquer panels, for Antoine César de Choiseul, duc de Praslin (U.Leben, 'Furniture made by Bernard Molitor for the duc de Choiseul Praslin', Furniture History, Leeds, 1991, pp. 100-106). Molitor executed various consoles of the present form, which Leben dates between 1785 and 1792, inluding a console from the Rothschild collection in Vienna, now in the Toledo Museum of Art (U.Leben, op. cit., p. 21).
Ulrich Leben's comprehensive research on Bernard Molitor demonstrates the diversity of the oeuvre of this talented ébéniste, who was active from the end of the ancien régime until approximately 1818 (U.Leben, Molitor, New York, 1992, p. 32). His most accomplished early work is the mahogany furniture executed around 1790 which relate to Jean-Henri Riesener's restrained mahogany furniture and Leben suggests that there might have been professional ties between the two (U.Leben, op. cit., p. 17). Shortly after, between 1790 and 1803, Molitor executed an important group of furniture, in mahogany and sumptuously decorated with lacquer panels, for Antoine César de Choiseul, duc de Praslin (U.Leben, 'Furniture made by Bernard Molitor for the duc de Choiseul Praslin', Furniture History, Leeds, 1991, pp. 100-106). Molitor executed various consoles of the present form, which Leben dates between 1785 and 1792, inluding a console from the Rothschild collection in Vienna, now in the Toledo Museum of Art (U.Leben, op. cit., p. 21).