Lot Essay
Charles Topino, matre in 1773
Louis Moreau, marchand-bniste, matre in 1764
Established in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, Topino specialized in the production of light furniture enriched with marquetry, either in the form of flowers or 'naif' still-lives inspired by the borders of Chinese screens. Employed as a specialist marqueteur by marchands such as Hricourt, Dautriche, Migeon, Denizot, Delorme, Tuart and Boudin, apart from Moreau, Topino's characteristic bronze dors were cast by Viret, chased by Chamboin and Dubuisson and gilded by Bcard, Grard and Vallet. As his daybook for the years 1771-79 clearly reveals, Topino had very few private clients. He supplied a table of this general form to a marchand at a cost of around sixty to seventy livres.
Several tables of this model by Topino are recorded, either with a marble top, as here, or with a marquetry top. The offered example is remarkable for the superb preservation of the original polychrome staining of the marquetry decoration. A near identical pair of tables, both stamped by Topino, are discussed in Partridge Recent Acquisitions 1998, no.52, pp. 126-7; three tables of closely related form are illustrated in J. Nicolay, L'Art et la Manire des Matres Ebnistes Franais au XVIIIe Sicle, Paris, 1956, p.461, figs. J,K,L; a further table, but with a false stamp, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Deane F. Johnson was sold in these Rooms, 30 April 1983, lot 111; and a final example with a marquetry top was sold anonymously Christie's London, 15 June 1995, lot 12.
Louis Moreau, marchand-bniste, matre in 1764
Established in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, Topino specialized in the production of light furniture enriched with marquetry, either in the form of flowers or 'naif' still-lives inspired by the borders of Chinese screens. Employed as a specialist marqueteur by marchands such as Hricourt, Dautriche, Migeon, Denizot, Delorme, Tuart and Boudin, apart from Moreau, Topino's characteristic bronze dors were cast by Viret, chased by Chamboin and Dubuisson and gilded by Bcard, Grard and Vallet. As his daybook for the years 1771-79 clearly reveals, Topino had very few private clients. He supplied a table of this general form to a marchand at a cost of around sixty to seventy livres.
Several tables of this model by Topino are recorded, either with a marble top, as here, or with a marquetry top. The offered example is remarkable for the superb preservation of the original polychrome staining of the marquetry decoration. A near identical pair of tables, both stamped by Topino, are discussed in Partridge Recent Acquisitions 1998, no.52, pp. 126-7; three tables of closely related form are illustrated in J. Nicolay, L'Art et la Manire des Matres Ebnistes Franais au XVIIIe Sicle, Paris, 1956, p.461, figs. J,K,L; a further table, but with a false stamp, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Deane F. Johnson was sold in these Rooms, 30 April 1983, lot 111; and a final example with a marquetry top was sold anonymously Christie's London, 15 June 1995, lot 12.