ATTRIBUTED TO JEAN-PIERRE LATZ, CIRCA 1745-1750

Although unstamped, this superb table with its distinctive naturalistic marquetry of seed-pods and trailing flowers, and its bold adventurous shape with its remarkable outset corners, can be securely attributed to the German-born cabinet-maker Jean-Pierre Latz (1691-1754). Born in Cologne, Latz moved to Paris in 1719 and in 1739 married Marie-Madeleine Seignet, daughter of a well-connected property developer. His business evidently prospered, as by 1741 he was appointed ébèniste privilegié du roy, which enabled him to exercise his profession freely without entering the guild as a master. Like the renowned cabinet-maker Charles Cressent before him, Latz also contravened guild regulations by casting his own bronzes, allowing unsigned pieces to be attributed to him based on the distinctive designs of their mounts. On this table, the shapes of the sabots and pierced chutes are characteristic of Latz's work. His furniture is also characterized by its rich, naturalistic floral marquetry in dense clusters and a distinctive use of ebony and dark-stained woods, often punctuated by distinctive gourd-like seed-pods and distinctive cartouche frames. These often relate to the work of Jean-François Oeben, with whom he is known to have collaborated, and with whom he shared an interest in using distinctive veneers. Intricate marquetry tables, often with hidden mechanisms, were a particular speciality of Latz, for instance a table à la bourgogne, inlaid with gardening implements and supplied to the duc de Penthièvre for the château de Sceaux, sold Christie’s, New York, 24 October 2012, lot 76 ($278,500, when acquired by Sceaux). Other related examples include a spectacular table, unstamped by Latz but firmly attributed to him, sold from the Alexander Collection, 30 April 1999, lot 70 ($772,5000) and a mechanical table stamped by both Latz and Genty (probably in the capacity of a retailer), with very similar floral trellis-filled cartouches to the top, in the Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon (G. de Bellaigue,The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, I Fribourg, 1974, pp. 395-397, cat. no. 82).
Latz's German connections secured a number of important commissions to the courts of Dresden and Berlin. His most important French clients included Madame Infante, eldest daughter of Louis XV, to whom he supplied a series of celebrated commodes and other case furniture, several of which feature similar foliate inlay and gilt bronzes, for her palace at Colorno following her marriage to the Duke of Parma, (the suite now resides in the Palazzo Qurinale, Rome, see A. González-Palacios, Il Patrimonio Artistico del Quirinale; Gli Arredi Francesi, Milan, 1996, pp. 108-138). To the duc de Penthièvre, Latz supplied a pair of encoignures for his Parisian residence, the hôtel de Toulouse, which subsequently passed to his grandson, King Louis-Philippe in the château d'Eu and were later sold from the collection of Akram Ojjeh, Christie's Monaco, 11 December 1999, lot 40). Other examples include another pair of encoignures for the château d'Anet, as well as the aforementioned table à la bourgogne for Sceaux.

SIR ALFRED CHESTER BEATTY (1875-1968)
Chester Beatty was an American mining magnate who, together with his wife Edith Beatty (née Dunn, 1886-1952), became one of the most important collectors of African, Asian, European and Middle Eastern manuscripts. He founded the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin in 1950 to house his collection which was opened to the public in 1954. Upon his death he bequeathed his wife’s collection of Marie-Antoinette’s personal furniture to the Musée du Louvre.

THE GROG-CARVEN COLLECTION
This celebrated collection of French decorative arts was formed by the fashion designer Marie-Louise Carven (1910-2015) and her second husband René Grog, a Swiss businessman. They shared a particular passion for the exquisite detail and naturalistic forms of the Rococo, and donated the bulk of their magnificent collection to the Louvre in 1973.