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Lot Essay
Jacques Dubois, matre in 1742 or, more probably his son Ren Dubois, matre in 1755.
Half-brother of the great marchand-bniste Nel Grard, Jacques Dubois (1694-1763) worked as an ouvrier libre in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine before becoming mitre, relatively late in his life, in 1742. As a maker of luxury furniture, it is likely that his production was sold principally through the marchand-merciers, such as Bertin or Migeon. Interestingly, the inventory following his death in 1764 shows a very large stock of bronze mounts, indicating that he retained exclusive use of his own models of mounts, in direct contravention of guild regulations. Following his father's death, Ren Dubois took charge of the atelier and continued to employ his fathers stamp. The vast majority of Transitional furniture stamped I. DUBOIS was, therefore, almost exclusively executed by the son.
With its moulded, stepped top and cabriole legs, this Transitional secretaire can perhaps be seen as a prototype for the more strictly Louis XVI secrtaires executed in both lacquer and marquetry, often for the marchands-merciers such as Granchez, who is known to have retailed the Japanese lacquer secretaire illustrated in A. Pradre, Les Ebenistes Francais de Louis XIV a la Revolution, Paris, 1989, p.299.
Half-brother of the great marchand-bniste Nel Grard, Jacques Dubois (1694-1763) worked as an ouvrier libre in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine before becoming mitre, relatively late in his life, in 1742. As a maker of luxury furniture, it is likely that his production was sold principally through the marchand-merciers, such as Bertin or Migeon. Interestingly, the inventory following his death in 1764 shows a very large stock of bronze mounts, indicating that he retained exclusive use of his own models of mounts, in direct contravention of guild regulations. Following his father's death, Ren Dubois took charge of the atelier and continued to employ his fathers stamp. The vast majority of Transitional furniture stamped I. DUBOIS was, therefore, almost exclusively executed by the son.
With its moulded, stepped top and cabriole legs, this Transitional secretaire can perhaps be seen as a prototype for the more strictly Louis XVI secrtaires executed in both lacquer and marquetry, often for the marchands-merciers such as Granchez, who is known to have retailed the Japanese lacquer secretaire illustrated in A. Pradre, Les Ebenistes Francais de Louis XIV a la Revolution, Paris, 1989, p.299.