Lot Essay
This commode can be closely related to the commode aux enfants balançant un singe, c. 1749-1755 by Charles Cressent (1695-1768) in the Musée du Louvre (illustrated in A. Pradère, Charles Cressent, sculpteur, ébéniste du Régent, Dijon, 2003, pp. 162-163), one of his most celebrated pieces. A further commode of the same model by Cressent, circa 1745-49, is in the Jack and Belle Linsky Collection, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (ill. D.O. Kisluk-Grosheide et.al, European Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Highlights of the Collection, New York, 2006, pp. 5 and 115, fig. 44).
It was formerly in the collection of the late Ernest Rechnitzer, a significant portion of which was sold at Christie's, London, 19 May 1955. This remarkable collection included many exceptional pieces, including a superb ormolu-mounted Japanese black and gilt-lacquer bureau de dame by Jacques Dubois (maître in 1742), which was then in the renowned Deane Johnson collection; an important Louis XVI black lacquer bonheur-du-jour by Claude-Charles Saunier (maître in 1752); and a Louis XVI black lacquer secrétaire à abattant by the celebrated ébéniste Charles Topino (maître in 1773).
It was formerly in the collection of the late Ernest Rechnitzer, a significant portion of which was sold at Christie's, London, 19 May 1955. This remarkable collection included many exceptional pieces, including a superb ormolu-mounted Japanese black and gilt-lacquer bureau de dame by Jacques Dubois (maître in 1742), which was then in the renowned Deane Johnson collection; an important Louis XVI black lacquer bonheur-du-jour by Claude-Charles Saunier (maître in 1752); and a Louis XVI black lacquer secrétaire à abattant by the celebrated ébéniste Charles Topino (maître in 1773).