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Lot Essay
Jean-François Leleu, maître in 1764.
This elegant bureau, with its flower-filled lozenge parquetry, sinuous lines and slighlty bombé sides is conceived in the restrained style of the late Rococo, which was dominant in France in the late 1750s and early 1760s. It is stamped by the celebrated ébéniste Jean-François Leleu (maître in 1764) and as a such may constitute one of his earliest stamped works, since the majority of known pieces of furniture by him, such as the 'commodes à la grecque' supplied to Madame de Pompadour in 1760 by Jean-François Oeben (1721-63, ébéniste du Roi in 1754, maître in 1760), were in the goût Grecque fashion, which emerged as the predominent style of the late 1760s and 1770s. Leleu served his apprenticeship on the Faubourg Saint-Antoine and then worked in Oeben's atelier. On the latter's death in 1763, Leleu hoped to take over his workshop, however he was supplanted by his younger colleague Jean-Henri Riesener (maître, ébéniste du Roi in 1768) who married Oeben's widow in 1768 and took over the running of the atelier.
TOWN & EMANUEL
Town and Emanuel, 'dealers in & manufacturers of antique furniture, curiosities, & pictures' of 103 New Bond Street, flourished from 1830 until the sale of their Magnificent and Extensive Stock by Christie's on 19 April, 1849. Like their contemporary Edward Holmes Baldock (d. 1854), Town and Emanuel were instrumental in the 'Boulle' revival in taste for furniture of the Ancien Régime, both manufacturing and dealing in French objets, bronzes d'ameublement and case furniture in the tradition of the marchands-merciers, counting the Duke of Buccleuch, the 3rd Lord Braybrooke, William Beckford and the Duke of Buckingham amongst their principal patrons, whilst their trade card advertised their Royal Appointment to Queen Adelaide.
Eliot Hodgkin (1905-87) was a British painter, famous for his highly detailed still lives in tempera. He was a cousin of the abstract painter Sir Howard Hodgkin (b. 1932) and related to the art critic Roger Fry (1866-1934) through Fry's mother Mariabella Hodgkin. He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy and presented at their Summer Exhibitions between 1934 and 1981.
This elegant bureau, with its flower-filled lozenge parquetry, sinuous lines and slighlty bombé sides is conceived in the restrained style of the late Rococo, which was dominant in France in the late 1750s and early 1760s. It is stamped by the celebrated ébéniste Jean-François Leleu (maître in 1764) and as a such may constitute one of his earliest stamped works, since the majority of known pieces of furniture by him, such as the 'commodes à la grecque' supplied to Madame de Pompadour in 1760 by Jean-François Oeben (1721-63, ébéniste du Roi in 1754, maître in 1760), were in the goût Grecque fashion, which emerged as the predominent style of the late 1760s and 1770s. Leleu served his apprenticeship on the Faubourg Saint-Antoine and then worked in Oeben's atelier. On the latter's death in 1763, Leleu hoped to take over his workshop, however he was supplanted by his younger colleague Jean-Henri Riesener (maître, ébéniste du Roi in 1768) who married Oeben's widow in 1768 and took over the running of the atelier.
TOWN & EMANUEL
Town and Emanuel, 'dealers in & manufacturers of antique furniture, curiosities, & pictures' of 103 New Bond Street, flourished from 1830 until the sale of their Magnificent and Extensive Stock by Christie's on 19 April, 1849. Like their contemporary Edward Holmes Baldock (d. 1854), Town and Emanuel were instrumental in the 'Boulle' revival in taste for furniture of the Ancien Régime, both manufacturing and dealing in French objets, bronzes d'ameublement and case furniture in the tradition of the marchands-merciers, counting the Duke of Buccleuch, the 3rd Lord Braybrooke, William Beckford and the Duke of Buckingham amongst their principal patrons, whilst their trade card advertised their Royal Appointment to Queen Adelaide.
Eliot Hodgkin (1905-87) was a British painter, famous for his highly detailed still lives in tempera. He was a cousin of the abstract painter Sir Howard Hodgkin (b. 1932) and related to the art critic Roger Fry (1866-1934) through Fry's mother Mariabella Hodgkin. He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy and presented at their Summer Exhibitions between 1934 and 1981.