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Lot Essay
The central figurative mounts of Socrates and Aspasia representing 'Wisdom and Religion’ (in the late 18th century erroneously referred to as 'Geometry and Geography’) derive from Andre-Charles Boulle (d. 1732), ébéniste, ciseleur, doreur et sculpteur du Roi from 1672 to 1732, who in turn was probably inspired by the painting of 'Aspasia, Queen of Egypt, among the Philosophers of Greece’ by Michel Corneille the Younger (d. 1708) on the ceiling cove of the Salon des Nobles de la Reine at Versailles. Similar figures are in a drawing by Boulle for an armoire in the collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, on two armoires formerly at Hamilton Palace, now in the Musée du Louvre, and on eight Louis XIV medal cabinets earlier in the Grande Galerie in the Palais de Saint-Cloud (P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Furniture II, London, 1996, pp. 695-696). Almost identical mounts separated by a sphinx below a curtained baldaquin feature on a pair of contre-partie encoignures attributed to Martin Carlin, maître in 1766, now in the Wallace Collection (F414-5).
The female figurative mount flanking the central panel is possible Ceres. An almost identical mount appears on an 18th century cabinet attributed to P-C Montigny (maître in 1766), formerly in the Arnold Seligmann Collection, and illustrated in F. Watson, Louis XVI Furniture, London, 1960, p. 153, no. 236).
Mathieu Befort, dit Befort Jeune (d. 1880), was the son of Jean-Baptiste Befort (d. 1840), who established his Paris workshops in 1817 in the faubourg Saint-Honoré. He was a brother of Bernard Befort, ébéniste-marqueteur and antiquaire and like him specialised in meubles de Boulle. The firm received a medal at the 1844 Exposition des Produits de l'Industrie française. Befort Jeune was recorded at Neuves-Saint-Gilles from 1844 until 1880.
A meuble d’appui with identical mounts of Socrates and Aspasia by Befort Jeune, sold Christie's London, 28 September 2006, lot 53 for (£84,000).
The female figurative mount flanking the central panel is possible Ceres. An almost identical mount appears on an 18th century cabinet attributed to P-C Montigny (maître in 1766), formerly in the Arnold Seligmann Collection, and illustrated in F. Watson, Louis XVI Furniture, London, 1960, p. 153, no. 236).
Mathieu Befort, dit Befort Jeune (d. 1880), was the son of Jean-Baptiste Befort (d. 1840), who established his Paris workshops in 1817 in the faubourg Saint-Honoré. He was a brother of Bernard Befort, ébéniste-marqueteur and antiquaire and like him specialised in meubles de Boulle. The firm received a medal at the 1844 Exposition des Produits de l'Industrie française. Befort Jeune was recorded at Neuves-Saint-Gilles from 1844 until 1880.
A meuble d’appui with identical mounts of Socrates and Aspasia by Befort Jeune, sold Christie's London, 28 September 2006, lot 53 for (£84,000).