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Lot Essay
Bernard Molitor, maître in 1787.
A bureau à cylindre of the same model, although more richly mounted, is also illustrated U. Leben, op.cit., p. 191, No. 71 A. Stamped by Molitor and dating from the end of the Louis XVI period, it was sold from the collection of Baronne de Caix, Drouot, Paris, 11-12 June, 1959, lot 210 (illustrated). Both bureaux share the same distinctive cut out V to the base of the stiles on the sides of the roll-top as well as the canted tapering legs indicating that they must have been produced at the same time. However, the bureau offered here is more sober in its use of ormolu mounts dependent upon the rich figuring of its timber for impact, indicating that its origins may overlap the early Revolutionary period.
A bureau à cylindre of the same model, although more richly mounted, is also illustrated U. Leben, op.cit., p. 191, No. 71 A. Stamped by Molitor and dating from the end of the Louis XVI period, it was sold from the collection of Baronne de Caix, Drouot, Paris, 11-12 June, 1959, lot 210 (illustrated). Both bureaux share the same distinctive cut out V to the base of the stiles on the sides of the roll-top as well as the canted tapering legs indicating that they must have been produced at the same time. However, the bureau offered here is more sober in its use of ormolu mounts dependent upon the rich figuring of its timber for impact, indicating that its origins may overlap the early Revolutionary period.