BY ROGER VAN DER CRUSE (RVLC), 'DIT' LACROIX, THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY

Roger van der Cruse ('RVLC') dit Lacroix, maître in 1755.

This magnificent bureau à cylindre, conceived on a large scale with shimmering illusionistic lozenge parquetry and beautifully-chased ormolu mounts covering almost every edge, is part of a distinguished group of just two known bureaux; the other, also stamped 'RVLC' but with a slide to the side as opposed to the back, was sold anonymously (The Property of a Gentleman), at Christie's, London, 4 June 1998, lot 50 (£364,500).

The lozenge parquetry which adorns this bureau was particularly favoured by Roger van der Cruse and appears on several pieces of furniture which bear his stamp, including the bureau also stamped by Simon Oeben which was delivered by Gilles Joubert as no. 2056 on 15 August 1756 for the library of the Dauphin at Versailles (C. Roinet, Roger Vandercruse dit La Croix 1727-1799, Paris, 2000, pp. 29, 41 & 47, figs. 7 & 10). The distinctive ormolu chutes, however, appear on a number of bureaux plats by Joseph Baumhauer, dit Joseph (maître circa 1749) including one from the Grog-Carven bequest in the Louvre (O.A.10453); another sold anonymously in Paris, Palais Galleria, 9 June 1976, lot A; and a final example offered anonymously at Sotheby's London, 24 November 1988, lot 20. The presence of these same chutes almost certainly reflects the intervention of a marchand-mercier such as Simon-Philippe Poirier in the creation of both bureaux. This theory is reinforced by the fact that Van der Cruse employed his shorter stamp ‘RVLC’ rather than that of 'LACROIX' for these two pieces of furniture. As an ébéniste who was widely patronised by both private clients and marchands-merciers, Roger van der Cruse appears to have used the stamp 'LACROIX' on more restrained, sober pieces of furniture that he sold directly from his atelier. The abbreviation 'RVLC', contrastingly, used upon this bureau à cylindre, appears to have been employed on luxurious furniture commissioned by or supplied to the marchands-merciers. Curiously, this bureau also includes, to the back, a mount depicting cavorting Bacchic putti more usually seen during the Régence period on furniture by the likes of Noël Gérard and Etienne Doirat – again pointing to the involvement of a marchand-mercier.

The stamp ‘J. Layton’ has been found thus far only on a handful of pieces of furniture, including a late Louis XV cube parquetry commode stamped by Roussel, sold Christie’s, London, 29 July 1954, lot 90, and a French side cabinet dating to the mid-19th century, sold Christie’s, South Kensington, 25 November 1998, lot 490. It is most likely that Layton was a dealer and/or restorer, probably in England, and worked on these pieces in the mid-19th century.

In the late 19th Century this cylinder bureau was owned by Baroness Burton, a leading English collector of porcelain and French furniture. She and her husband were the then owners of Chesterfield House, the superb rococo palace built from 1746 by Isaac Ware for the 1st Lord Chesterfield. A series of photographs of its famous interiors taken by Bedford Lemere in the late 19th and early 20th century show them overflowing with Lady Burton's collection, including this bureau in the Small Drawing Room, in July 1887, and then later in the same room (renamed Lady Burton’s Boudoir) although in a different position, in 1894. The interior photographs also show another cylinder bureau stamped by Jean-François Oeben, which was included in the 1950 sale as lot 281 and also bought by Camerons in partnership with the father of the present owner. Chesterfield House was demolished in 1937 and Lady Burton died childless twenty-five years later. Upon her death, the title of Baron Burton was passed down to Michael Baillie, 3rd Baron Burton.