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Lot Essay
Jean Desforges, maître before 1730.
The C Couronné poinçon was a tax mark employed on any alloy containg copper between March 1745 and Febraury 1749.
Son of the ébéniste Michel Desforges, Jean Desforges was appointed maître ébéniste before 1730. The brother-in-law of Guillaume Martin, maître peintre and Vernisseur du Roi, and uncle of the ciseleur Guillaume Desforges, he executed principally lacquer and japanned case furniture, almost certainly commissioned by a specific marchand-mercier. (M. Calin Demetrescu, 'D.F. Un Ebéniste Identifié', L'Estampille/L'Objet d'Art, October 1992, pp. 64-81).
Desforges employed characteristic mounts, which were proabaly provided by his nephew, and this enables us to place this commode within a small related group. Identical chutes, sabots and apron mounts appear on a commode formerly in the collection of Baron Gustave de Rothschild, which was sold by the Marquess of Cholmondeley, 'Works of Art from Houghton', Christie's London, 8 December 1994, lot 69. A further example, but with red lacquer within black vernis borders and similarly stamped with the C couronné is illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1989, p. 257, fig. c;
A commode with identical apron-mount and chutes, together with a closely related frame, was reputedly given by Madame Adelaïde, Louis XV's sister, to the Genest family of Angouleme, (illustrated in J. Nicolay, L'Art et la Manière des Maîtres Ebénistes Français au XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1956, p. 147, fig. A)
Finally, the black lacquer commode from the Widener collection at the National Gallery of Art, Washington (Museum No. c.261, illustrated in H. Huth, Lacquer of the West, London, 1971, pl. 231), shares an identical escutcheon and closely related frame and chutes
The C Couronné poinçon was a tax mark employed on any alloy containg copper between March 1745 and Febraury 1749.
Son of the ébéniste Michel Desforges, Jean Desforges was appointed maître ébéniste before 1730. The brother-in-law of Guillaume Martin, maître peintre and Vernisseur du Roi, and uncle of the ciseleur Guillaume Desforges, he executed principally lacquer and japanned case furniture, almost certainly commissioned by a specific marchand-mercier. (M. Calin Demetrescu, 'D.F. Un Ebéniste Identifié', L'Estampille/L'Objet d'Art, October 1992, pp. 64-81).
Desforges employed characteristic mounts, which were proabaly provided by his nephew, and this enables us to place this commode within a small related group. Identical chutes, sabots and apron mounts appear on a commode formerly in the collection of Baron Gustave de Rothschild, which was sold by the Marquess of Cholmondeley, 'Works of Art from Houghton', Christie's London, 8 December 1994, lot 69. A further example, but with red lacquer within black vernis borders and similarly stamped with the C couronné is illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1989, p. 257, fig. c;
A commode with identical apron-mount and chutes, together with a closely related frame, was reputedly given by Madame Adelaïde, Louis XV's sister, to the Genest family of Angouleme, (illustrated in J. Nicolay, L'Art et la Manière des Maîtres Ebénistes Français au XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1956, p. 147, fig. A)
Finally, the black lacquer commode from the Widener collection at the National Gallery of Art, Washington (Museum No. c.261, illustrated in H. Huth, Lacquer of the West, London, 1971, pl. 231), shares an identical escutcheon and closely related frame and chutes