A LOUIS XIV ORMOLU-MOUNTED AND BRASS-INLAID BROWN TORTOISESHELL AND EBONY ARMOIRE

ATTRIBUTED TO NICOLAS SAGEOT

Details
A LOUIS XIV ORMOLU-MOUNTED AND BRASS-INLAID BROWN TORTOISESHELL AND EBONY ARMOIRE
Attributed to Nicolas Sageot
Inlaid overall en première and contre-partie with foliate arabesques and floral tendrils within strapwork cartouches and brass- filleted borders, the brass-bound rectangular spreading moulded pediment with scrolled acanthus angles above a moulded tapering cornice with laurel-swagged lambrequins enriched with fleur-de-lys, the raised panelled doors each with foliate arabesques within a ribbon-tied foliate border and divided by espagnolette-masks headed by interlaced strapwork with satyr-masks and ivy, enclosing a fitted walnut-lined interior with two shelves and two walnut drawers with brass inlay, the sides with further arabesques, the base with two drawers flanked by moulded pedestals and above a waved apron, on waisted feet with egg-and-dart collar, the marquetry distressed, the mounts re-gilt in the 19th Century, presumably when elements of the tortoiseshell were replaced and the cornice to the top of the base-section was restored, with handwritten label to the reverse BACK OF NO. CABINET, restorations
54½in. (138.5cm.) wide; 92in. (234cm.) high; 19¼in. (49cm.) deep
Provenance
Almost certainly acquired by John, 2nd Marquess of Bute (1793-1848) for Cardiff Castle.

Lot Essay

This ebony library-cabinet or armoire à dôme with sculpture - pedestal cornice is designed in the Louis XIV 'antique' manner. Embellished with golden bas-reliefs and tortoiseshell inlaid with a ribbon-tied filigree of Roman foliage, it owes its form to the designs of the ébéniste du roi André-Charles Boulle, such as those in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris for an armoire in the Louvre (D. Alcouffe et.al., Furniture Collections in the Louvre, Dijon, 1993, vol. 1, no. 19, pp. 70-9).

This armoire forms the pair to that en contre-partie sold from the Armaillé Collection, 6 June 1890, lot 154 and is almost en suite with that illustrated with later feet in T. Strange, French Interiors, Furniture, Decoration, Woodwork and Allied Arts, London, 1950, p. 144. They belong to a distinctive group of armoires, all executed in the early 18th Century, comprising:
- One from the collection of Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, Partridge, Exhibition Catalogue, 1996, no. 28.
- Another acquired by Baron Meyer Amschel de Rothschild for Mentmore Towers, Buckinghamshire and sold by the Earl of Rosebery, Sotheby's House Sale, 19 May 1977, lot 495 and consequently at Sotheby's New York, 22 May 1993, lot 224.
- Another, exhibited by B.B.Steinitz at the Biennale des Antiquaires, Paris, 1986.

The ornament of the apron and the design of the marquetry of this armoire is closely related to the oeuvre of the ébéniste Nicolas Sageot, which was discussed by Pierre Grand in 'Le Mobilier Boulle et les ateliers de l'époque', L'Estampille/L'Objet d'Art, February, 1993, pp.48-70. Indeed, the distinctive shaped apron is shared with the bureau mazarin by Sageot conserved in the Royal Palace at Stockholm (inv. H.G.K. 215, ibid., fig. 2), aswell as on a commode in the Wallace Collection (F39).

On the 26 July 1720 Sageot sold 16,000 livres of furniture to the marchand-mercier Léonard Prieur, amongst which were several 'armoires à dôme' in brass-inlaid tortoiseshell, valued between 400 and 1000 livres

The identical satyr-mask mount features on a George III commode discussed in L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994, No. 14

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