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Lot Essay
This spectacular bibliothèque basse, with its particularly rich and rare combination of both Boulle marquetry and Florentine pietre dure, is testament to the fact that the passion for Boulle furniture among enlightened collectors never waned. This was never more so than in the early 19th Century in England, when a group of francophile connoisseurs such as the Marquess of Hertford, the Dukes of Buccleuch and Hamilton and the Prince Regent, later George IV, took advantage of the vast amounts of furniture from the ancien régime available on the market first in the Revolutionary sales and subsequently following the Napoleonic wars. These English amateurs all sought out almost above all other makers the work of the celebrated ébéniste to Louis XIV and also the cabinet-makers of the Louis XVI period who adopted Boulle's style, either by incorporating pieces of Louis XIV marquetry in their own work or by making entirely new pieces.
The fact that the bibliothèque offered here is stamped 'E LEVASSEUR' provides a direct link to Boulle's workshop as Levasseur (maître in 1782) had apprenticed with Boulle's son Charles-Joseph. He was one of the foremost cabinet-makers who specialized in Boulle marquetry in the Louis XVI period, and some of his most accomplished works in this style are a series of bibliothèques basses based on Boulle's prototypes, including a set made for the painter Vigée-Lebrun. Both Levasseur's son Pierre-Etienne and his grandson Pierre-François-Henri (also known as Levasseur 'jeune') continued to make furniture with Boulle marquetry well into the 1820's, with Levasseur 'jeune' taking over his father's business, based at 123, rue Faubourg Saint-Antoine, in 1823. They both continued to use the elder Levasseur's stamp. Interestingly the striking Hercules mounts to the sides of the cabinet offered here appear on the work of a contemporary of Boulle, Noël Gérard, notably on a bureau plat illustrated in A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes Français de Louis XIV à la Révolution, Paris, 1989, p. 113.
The Duke of Wellington, following his triumph at Waterloo, famously acquired a group of Boulle furniture in 1815-1818 in Paris through the painter-dealer Chevalier Féréol Bonnemaison for his newly acquired country seat Stratfield Saye. While much of this group consisted of Louis XVI pieces by the elder Levasseur, it is fascinating to note two bibliothèques basses with an identical frieze mount of alternating palmette and acanthus leaves to that on the bookcase offered here. As Megan Aldrich convincingly argues in her article on the Boulle furniture at Stratfield Saye, these bookcases are likely to have been executed in the Louis XVI period by Etienne Levasseur, and later finished with mounts by his son Pierre-Etienne (see M. Aldrich, 'A Setting for Boulle Furniture: The Duke of Wellington's Gallery at Stratfield Saye', Apollo, June 1998, pp. 20-22), thus further strengthening the connection of the splendid cabinet offered here to the passionate collectors of Boulle furniture in early 19th Century England.
The fact that the bibliothèque offered here is stamped 'E LEVASSEUR' provides a direct link to Boulle's workshop as Levasseur (maître in 1782) had apprenticed with Boulle's son Charles-Joseph. He was one of the foremost cabinet-makers who specialized in Boulle marquetry in the Louis XVI period, and some of his most accomplished works in this style are a series of bibliothèques basses based on Boulle's prototypes, including a set made for the painter Vigée-Lebrun. Both Levasseur's son Pierre-Etienne and his grandson Pierre-François-Henri (also known as Levasseur 'jeune') continued to make furniture with Boulle marquetry well into the 1820's, with Levasseur 'jeune' taking over his father's business, based at 123, rue Faubourg Saint-Antoine, in 1823. They both continued to use the elder Levasseur's stamp. Interestingly the striking Hercules mounts to the sides of the cabinet offered here appear on the work of a contemporary of Boulle, Noël Gérard, notably on a bureau plat illustrated in A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes Français de Louis XIV à la Révolution, Paris, 1989, p. 113.
The Duke of Wellington, following his triumph at Waterloo, famously acquired a group of Boulle furniture in 1815-1818 in Paris through the painter-dealer Chevalier Féréol Bonnemaison for his newly acquired country seat Stratfield Saye. While much of this group consisted of Louis XVI pieces by the elder Levasseur, it is fascinating to note two bibliothèques basses with an identical frieze mount of alternating palmette and acanthus leaves to that on the bookcase offered here. As Megan Aldrich convincingly argues in her article on the Boulle furniture at Stratfield Saye, these bookcases are likely to have been executed in the Louis XVI period by Etienne Levasseur, and later finished with mounts by his son Pierre-Etienne (see M. Aldrich, 'A Setting for Boulle Furniture: The Duke of Wellington's Gallery at Stratfield Saye', Apollo, June 1998, pp. 20-22), thus further strengthening the connection of the splendid cabinet offered here to the passionate collectors of Boulle furniture in early 19th Century England.