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Lot Essay
With its graceful lines, finely-chased mounts and high quality lacquer panels, this elegant bureau exemplifies the oeuvre of Jacques Dubois (1694-1764), maître in 1742. It can be confidently attributed to the celebrated ébéniste on the basis of several closely related examples, stamped by Dubois, featuring the same distinctive serpentine shape, ogee-scrolled profile and broken curved line to the apron, as on the present lot. These stamped examples include a bureau formerly in the Collection of Henry Ford II, sold Sotheby Park Bernet, New York, 25 February 1978, lot 90; another sold from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Deane Johnson, Bel Air, California, Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 9 December 1972, lot 110, and a further example formerly in the collection of the duc de Villeroy, sold from the Alexandre Benchoufi Collection, Sotheby's, New York, 9 November 2006, lot 150.
Also recurrent in Dubois' oeuvre is the use of vernis martin sur fond aventurine, a technique employed to simulate the Japanese nashiji lacquer and extensively used to the reverse and interior of the present bureau. Dubois' innovative use of vernis martin sur fond aventurine is further discussed by T. Wolvesperges in Le Meuble Francais en Laque au XVIIIème siècle, Paris, 1999, pp. 288-294.
Half-brother of the great marchand-ébéniste Nöel Gèrard, Jacques Dubois (1694-1763) worked as an ouvrier libre in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine to become one of the most prolific and celebrated cabinet-makers of the Louis XV period. The inventory drawn up after his death revealed an extensive workshop and included a small group of costly pieces in Chinese or Japanese lacquer such as 'un bureau en lac de Chine' and 'un petit secretaire en lac de japon' each valued at 200 livres. It further listed a large stock of bronze mounts, indicating the possibility that Dubois retained exclusive use of his own models.
Also recurrent in Dubois' oeuvre is the use of vernis martin sur fond aventurine, a technique employed to simulate the Japanese nashiji lacquer and extensively used to the reverse and interior of the present bureau. Dubois' innovative use of vernis martin sur fond aventurine is further discussed by T. Wolvesperges in Le Meuble Francais en Laque au XVIIIème siècle, Paris, 1999, pp. 288-294.
Half-brother of the great marchand-ébéniste Nöel Gèrard, Jacques Dubois (1694-1763) worked as an ouvrier libre in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine to become one of the most prolific and celebrated cabinet-makers of the Louis XV period. The inventory drawn up after his death revealed an extensive workshop and included a small group of costly pieces in Chinese or Japanese lacquer such as 'un bureau en lac de Chine' and 'un petit secretaire en lac de japon' each valued at 200 livres. It further listed a large stock of bronze mounts, indicating the possibility that Dubois retained exclusive use of his own models.