Lot 297
297
VARIOUS PROPERTIES
AN EMPIRE ORMOLU-MOUNTED MAHOGANY COMMODE À VANTAUX

EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Details
AN EMPIRE ORMOLU-MOUNTED MAHOGANY COMMODE À VANTAUX
early 19th century
With rectangular inset white marble top above a frieze drawer cast with a central classical female mask flanked by anthemia and rosettes, above a pair of doors enclosing a fitted interior with drawers and compartments, the doors with central acanthus-cast column on rectangular plinth with leaf-tip border
43in. (109cm.) high, 42in. (107cm.) wide, 20in. (51cm.) deep

Lot Essay

The form of this commode à vantaux derives from a design by the architect François Belanger published in J.-Ch. Kraft and Ch.-N. Ransonnette, Plans, coupes et élévations des plus belles maisons et hôtel construits à Paris et dans les environs..., Paris, 1801-1802, pl. XC. A commode à vantaux of similar form by Bernard Molitor was sold Christie's Monaco, 2 December 1994, lot 162. A number of pieces attributed to Molitor and mounted with identical bronzes in the frieze and with similar vertical divides are illustrated in U. Leben, Molitor, 1992, pp. 183-84, 198, figs. 33a, 34, 36.