Lot Essay
This virtuoso carved still life was executed by the sculptor Jean-Joseph Dechesne, active in Paris at the end of the 18th century. (He is recorded in Stanislas Lami, Dictionnaire des Sculpteurs de l'Ecole Franaise, vol. 3, p. 254). Very little is known about his career despite the naturalistic rendering and oustanding skill of this composition which is comparable to the decorative reliefs of the famous carver Aubert-Henri-Joseph Parent produced around the same time (For a related floral composition by Parent, see C. Bremer-David, Decorative Arts: An illustrated Summary Catalogue of the Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1993, p. 75, nos. 112 and 113).