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Lot Essay
Jean-Franois Leleu, mitre in 1764
This bureau plat, with its distinctive flower-filled entrelac frieze, closely resembles an example supplied in 1773 by Leleu to the prince de Cond for the Palais de Bourbon, described in a bill of 24 May 1773 as having ' dans la frize un entrelas et rosaces nuancs ' (see A. Pradre, Les Ebnistes Franais de Louis XIV la Revolution, Paris, 1989, p. 340). The furniture supplied by Leleu to the Palais Bourbon was in an advanced neoclassical taste, and included a striking cylinder bureau, the whereabouts now unknown, and a marquetry commode with massive gilt paw feet (see S. Eriksen, Early Neoclassicism in France, London, 1974, pp. 322-5, figs. 127-130). A bureau plat closely related to this example was sold Sotheby's Monaco, 9 December 1984, lot 1054. It is interesting to note that a commode in this sale, lot 175, has an identical marquetry frieze, which is a particular leitmotif of Leleu's oeuvre, and appears with minor variations on a secretaire in the Muse des Arts Dcoratifs, Paris, illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Franais du XVIIIe Sicle, Paris, 1989, p. 508, fig. A, and a secretaire inlaid with the cypher 'M', sold Christie's Monaco, 5 December 1992, lot 34.
This bureau plat, with its distinctive flower-filled entrelac frieze, closely resembles an example supplied in 1773 by Leleu to the prince de Cond for the Palais de Bourbon, described in a bill of 24 May 1773 as having ' dans la frize un entrelas et rosaces nuancs ' (see A. Pradre, Les Ebnistes Franais de Louis XIV la Revolution, Paris, 1989, p. 340). The furniture supplied by Leleu to the Palais Bourbon was in an advanced neoclassical taste, and included a striking cylinder bureau, the whereabouts now unknown, and a marquetry commode with massive gilt paw feet (see S. Eriksen, Early Neoclassicism in France, London, 1974, pp. 322-5, figs. 127-130). A bureau plat closely related to this example was sold Sotheby's Monaco, 9 December 1984, lot 1054. It is interesting to note that a commode in this sale, lot 175, has an identical marquetry frieze, which is a particular leitmotif of Leleu's oeuvre, and appears with minor variations on a secretaire in the Muse des Arts Dcoratifs, Paris, illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Franais du XVIIIe Sicle, Paris, 1989, p. 508, fig. A, and a secretaire inlaid with the cypher 'M', sold Christie's Monaco, 5 December 1992, lot 34.