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Lot Essay
Maurice Bernard Evald, maître in 1765.
These lacquer commodes are rare for being amongst a small number of surviving pairs of commodes made in this period using Chinese rather than Japanese lacquer panels (a further pair of Louis XVI ormolu-mounted Chinese lacquer and ebonised commodes was sold Christie’s, New York, 18 October 2002, lot 323). From the 1730s onwards lacquer-mounted commodes were amongst the most costly pieces of furniture produced. Early examples are the four commodes attributed to Antoine-Robert Gaudreaux I (1682-1746) and Bernard II van Risenburgh (after 1696-1766) delivered to Karl Albrecht, Elector of Bavaria around 1730-1733 for the Reiche Zimmer of the Residenz in Munich (B. Langer, Die Möbel der Residenz München, I, Die französischen Möbel des 18. Jahrhunderts, Munich/New York, 1995, pp. 88-102, nos. 14-17).
The present commodes are also unique for seemingly being one of only two extant pairs veneered in lacquer by the German-born ébéniste Maurice Bernard Evald - other surviving furniture executed by him is in floral marquetry. The other example is a virtually identical pair of cabinets, presumably also by Evald, in the collection of the comtesse René de Nicolay at château du Lude in the Loire Valley (illustrated in C. de Nicolay-Mazery, J.-B. Naudin, The French Château: Life, Style, Tradition, London, 1991, p. 69). An inventory taken following his bankruptcy in 1774 shows that Evald kept lacquer panels in his workshop in the rue du Bac, Paris. This suggests he was either a marchand-mercier or that he worked with a marchand-mercier because guild restrictions prohibited the use of lacquer and porcelain by ébénistes. In spite of a brief career, Evald’s prestigious clients included the duc d’Orléans, the duc d’Aumont and the duc de Luynes. Furthermore, it is known that he was commissioned to make a jewel cabinet to designs by Bélanger for Louis XVI to give to Marie-Antoinette at the time of their marriage; the design survives although the cabinet does not.
DUCHESSE MARIA-CAROLINA DE BERRY (1798-1870)
The commodes were almost certainly in the collection of Maria Carolina de Berry, daughter of Francois I, King of the Two Sicilies (d. 1830), who in 1813, married Charles-Ferdinand, duc de Berry (d. 1820), son of Charles X, King of France from 1824-30. They were housed at her Venetian palazzo, and passed by descent through her children from her second marriage in 1831 to conte Don Ettore Carlo Lucchesi Palli, duca della Grazia (d. 1864).
These lacquer commodes are rare for being amongst a small number of surviving pairs of commodes made in this period using Chinese rather than Japanese lacquer panels (a further pair of Louis XVI ormolu-mounted Chinese lacquer and ebonised commodes was sold Christie’s, New York, 18 October 2002, lot 323). From the 1730s onwards lacquer-mounted commodes were amongst the most costly pieces of furniture produced. Early examples are the four commodes attributed to Antoine-Robert Gaudreaux I (1682-1746) and Bernard II van Risenburgh (after 1696-1766) delivered to Karl Albrecht, Elector of Bavaria around 1730-1733 for the Reiche Zimmer of the Residenz in Munich (B. Langer, Die Möbel der Residenz München, I, Die französischen Möbel des 18. Jahrhunderts, Munich/New York, 1995, pp. 88-102, nos. 14-17).
The present commodes are also unique for seemingly being one of only two extant pairs veneered in lacquer by the German-born ébéniste Maurice Bernard Evald - other surviving furniture executed by him is in floral marquetry. The other example is a virtually identical pair of cabinets, presumably also by Evald, in the collection of the comtesse René de Nicolay at château du Lude in the Loire Valley (illustrated in C. de Nicolay-Mazery, J.-B. Naudin, The French Château: Life, Style, Tradition, London, 1991, p. 69). An inventory taken following his bankruptcy in 1774 shows that Evald kept lacquer panels in his workshop in the rue du Bac, Paris. This suggests he was either a marchand-mercier or that he worked with a marchand-mercier because guild restrictions prohibited the use of lacquer and porcelain by ébénistes. In spite of a brief career, Evald’s prestigious clients included the duc d’Orléans, the duc d’Aumont and the duc de Luynes. Furthermore, it is known that he was commissioned to make a jewel cabinet to designs by Bélanger for Louis XVI to give to Marie-Antoinette at the time of their marriage; the design survives although the cabinet does not.
DUCHESSE MARIA-CAROLINA DE BERRY (1798-1870)
The commodes were almost certainly in the collection of Maria Carolina de Berry, daughter of Francois I, King of the Two Sicilies (d. 1830), who in 1813, married Charles-Ferdinand, duc de Berry (d. 1820), son of Charles X, King of France from 1824-30. They were housed at her Venetian palazzo, and passed by descent through her children from her second marriage in 1831 to conte Don Ettore Carlo Lucchesi Palli, duca della Grazia (d. 1864).