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Lot Essay
Charles-Joseph Lemarchand, maître in 1789.
A contemporary of Bernard Molitor and working in a similar style, Charles-Joseph Lemarchand was one of the most popular cabinet makers of post-revolutionary Paris. Charles-Joseph’s atelier was taken over by his son Louis-Edouard, who was an inventive craftsman and successful businessman, securing a number of commissions during the Bourbon restoration and delivered pieces for Saint-Cloud, Trianon, and the Tuilleries.
With its ormolu-mounted mahogany front opening to a whimsically-inlaid satinwood interior, the secrétaire à abattant offered here is an archetypical work produced by Lemarchand in the early 1800s. During the Consulat and early Empire periods Lemarchand produced an array of case furnishings that share a number of decorative elements with this lot; these include the very clear outlines, the ormolu herm mounts, the figural marquetry in Pompeian taste, the winged monopodia legs, and the use of contrasting secondary timbers. Comparable examples from Lemarchand’s oeuvre include a bonheur du jour of similar form and ormolu mounts, sold Christie’s, Paris, December 7, 2005, lot 87; an ebony-inlaid citronnier commode with partially identical marquetry and comparable patinated bronze herms, see D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Mobilier Français du XIXè Siècle, Paris, 1984, p. 413; and a citronnier secrétaire of identical form and mirrored lower section, with the same monopodia legs and herm busts and similar Pompeian-style marquetry executed in ebony, see ibid. p. 412.
A contemporary of Bernard Molitor and working in a similar style, Charles-Joseph Lemarchand was one of the most popular cabinet makers of post-revolutionary Paris. Charles-Joseph’s atelier was taken over by his son Louis-Edouard, who was an inventive craftsman and successful businessman, securing a number of commissions during the Bourbon restoration and delivered pieces for Saint-Cloud, Trianon, and the Tuilleries.
With its ormolu-mounted mahogany front opening to a whimsically-inlaid satinwood interior, the secrétaire à abattant offered here is an archetypical work produced by Lemarchand in the early 1800s. During the Consulat and early Empire periods Lemarchand produced an array of case furnishings that share a number of decorative elements with this lot; these include the very clear outlines, the ormolu herm mounts, the figural marquetry in Pompeian taste, the winged monopodia legs, and the use of contrasting secondary timbers. Comparable examples from Lemarchand’s oeuvre include a bonheur du jour of similar form and ormolu mounts, sold Christie’s, Paris, December 7, 2005, lot 87; an ebony-inlaid citronnier commode with partially identical marquetry and comparable patinated bronze herms, see D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Mobilier Français du XIXè Siècle, Paris, 1984, p. 413; and a citronnier secrétaire of identical form and mirrored lower section, with the same monopodia legs and herm busts and similar Pompeian-style marquetry executed in ebony, see ibid. p. 412.