.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Bernard II van Risen Burgh, matre in 1730
BVRB's reputation as one of the pre-eminent bnistes of the eighteenth-century rests substantially on his furniture mounted with Oriental lacquer panels. It was BVRB, however, who made the first Japanese lacquer-mounted commode ever delivered to the Garde-Meuble, which was supplied by the marchand-mercier Thomas-Joachim Hbert to Queen Maria Lesczynska at Fontainebleau in 1737.
Lacquer-mounted furniture perfectly demonstrates the distinctive relationship between marchand-mercier and bniste. Probably owing to the prohibitive cost, bnistes did not keep Oriental lacquer panels in stock and these were instead provided by the marchands. Interestingly, this small cabinet retains an ink inscription with the name Poirier, and this confirms that Simon-Philippe Poirier commissioned this cabinet from BVRB, providing him in turn with the lacquer panels.
A number of examples of this model of cabinet dating from the 1760's are known, but these all have either plain or marquetry veneer, and the Alexander cabinet appears to be the only one recorded in lacquer. Of this latter group, the majority are stamped by BVRB, but the model was also copied by Joseph Baumhauer, Simon Oeben and even RVLC (sold anonymously at Christie's Monaco, 13 December 1998, lot 320). Cabinets of this form by BVRB with a fall-front of plain veneer or neo-classical vase marquetry include that sold anonymously in these Rooms, 9 May 1985, lot 190; another sold Palais Galliera, Paris, 2 June 1970, lot 126; another, sold from the Patio Collection, sold Sotheby's New York, 1 November 1986, lot 116 and a final example, formerly in the collection of Penard y Fernandez, sold Etude Picard Tajan, Monaco, 17 March 1988, lot 89.
A further group of unstamped cabinets, their fall-fronts veneered with bois de bot flowering branches, comprises:- that in the Forsyth Wickes at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (formerly in the collection of the Counts Potocki, Lancut, Poland, no. 62.2504, illustrated in P. Verlet, Les Meubles Franais du XVIIme sicle, Paris, 1982, fig. 151); another in the collection of the Marquess of Bath, Longleat, England; another, sold anonymously at Sotheby's Monaco, 22 June 1986, lot 634; and a final one from the Patio Collection, sold Sotheby's New York, 1 November 1986, lot 115.
BVRB's reputation as one of the pre-eminent bnistes of the eighteenth-century rests substantially on his furniture mounted with Oriental lacquer panels. It was BVRB, however, who made the first Japanese lacquer-mounted commode ever delivered to the Garde-Meuble, which was supplied by the marchand-mercier Thomas-Joachim Hbert to Queen Maria Lesczynska at Fontainebleau in 1737.
Lacquer-mounted furniture perfectly demonstrates the distinctive relationship between marchand-mercier and bniste. Probably owing to the prohibitive cost, bnistes did not keep Oriental lacquer panels in stock and these were instead provided by the marchands. Interestingly, this small cabinet retains an ink inscription with the name Poirier, and this confirms that Simon-Philippe Poirier commissioned this cabinet from BVRB, providing him in turn with the lacquer panels.
A number of examples of this model of cabinet dating from the 1760's are known, but these all have either plain or marquetry veneer, and the Alexander cabinet appears to be the only one recorded in lacquer. Of this latter group, the majority are stamped by BVRB, but the model was also copied by Joseph Baumhauer, Simon Oeben and even RVLC (sold anonymously at Christie's Monaco, 13 December 1998, lot 320). Cabinets of this form by BVRB with a fall-front of plain veneer or neo-classical vase marquetry include that sold anonymously in these Rooms, 9 May 1985, lot 190; another sold Palais Galliera, Paris, 2 June 1970, lot 126; another, sold from the Patio Collection, sold Sotheby's New York, 1 November 1986, lot 116 and a final example, formerly in the collection of Penard y Fernandez, sold Etude Picard Tajan, Monaco, 17 March 1988, lot 89.
A further group of unstamped cabinets, their fall-fronts veneered with bois de bot flowering branches, comprises:- that in the Forsyth Wickes at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (formerly in the collection of the Counts Potocki, Lancut, Poland, no. 62.2504, illustrated in P. Verlet, Les Meubles Franais du XVIIme sicle, Paris, 1982, fig. 151); another in the collection of the Marquess of Bath, Longleat, England; another, sold anonymously at Sotheby's Monaco, 22 June 1986, lot 634; and a final one from the Patio Collection, sold Sotheby's New York, 1 November 1986, lot 115.