STAMPED 'L. MOREAU' TWICE, AND 'JME' FOUR TIMES, CIRCA 1780

Details

A LOUIS XVI PEWTER-INLAID AND ORMOLU-MOUNTED EBONY BUREAU PLAT
STAMPED 'L. MOREAU' TWICE, AND 'JME' FOUR TIMES, CIRCA 1780
The rectangular leather-lined top above three frieze drawers with pewter line inlay within a leaf-tip-cast-edge, the reverse with sham drawers and the sides similarly mounted, on square tapering legs with further inlay and rope-twist edge, with square tapering sabots, stamped to underside of short sides, branded with '276 and 'NI' within a square, stamped to underside of short ends, interior false drawer side with holes indicating probably change of heart at time of construction in positioning of escutcheons
29.3.4 in. (75.5 cm.) high, 44½ in. (113 cm.) wide, 22¼ (56.5 cm.) deep

Provenance

Mrs. Charles Allen; Sotheby's New York, 1 November 1997, lot 93 ($79,500 including premium).
with Partridge Fine Arts, London.

Lot Essay

Louis Moreau, maître in 1764.

Louis Moreau, maître in 1764, was working as a cabinetmaker but also as a marchand-ébéniste in a shop named A la descente des Tuileries . He is particularly renowned for pieces with plain veneers and restrained ormolu mounts in the goût anglais.
He supplied pieces to the Court through the administration of the Menus Plaisirs including a guéridon 'en acajou moiré de la plus belle qualité' (G. Janneau, Les ateliers parisiens d'ébénistes et de menuisiers aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Paris, 1975, p. 188).

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