A REGENCE ORMOLU-MOUNTED EBONY, BRASS, TORTOISESHELL AND BOULLE MARQUETRY SIDE TABLE**
This lot has no reserve. Notice Regarding the Sal… Read more
A REGENCE ORMOLU-MOUNTED EBONY, BRASS, TORTOISESHELL AND BOULLE MARQUETRY SIDE TABLE**

CIRCA 1725, BY ANDRÉ-CHARLES BOULLE AND STAMPED A. DUBOIS JME, THE TOP ORIGINALLY WITH BOULLE MARQUETRY

Details
A REGENCE ORMOLU-MOUNTED EBONY, BRASS, TORTOISESHELL AND BOULLE MARQUETRY SIDE TABLE**
Circa 1725, by André-Charles Boulle and stamped A. DUBOIS JME, the top originally with Boulle marquetry
Inlaid en contre-partie, decorated overall with foliate scrolls, the rounded rectangular top decorated with brass-inlaid lozenges, within a flower-filled entrelac border, the waved frieze with panelled drawer and sides, the shell mounts probably replaced, the angles with female espagnolette masks, the back angles with satyr-masks, on four cabriole legs and scrolled sabots cast with acanthus
31in. (79cm.) high, 51¾in. (131.5cm.) wide, 20in. (51cm.) deep
Provenance
Almost certainly supplied by André-Charles Boulle to Monsieur Crozat de Thiers circa 1725-30 and sold in Paris, 1772, lot 1120 (400 livres).
Probably acquired by either William, 1st Earl Beauchamp (d.1816) and his wife, or their son William, 2nd Earl (d.1823) or John, 3rd earl (d.1853), probably for Spring Hill, Gloucestershire or their London House, 13 Belgrave Square, S.W.1.
Thence by descent to the late Countess Beauchamp, M.B.E., sold Sotheby's London, 15 June 1990, lot 4 (£264,000; $477,840).
Literature
P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Furniture, London, Vol. II, 1996, p.757.
Special notice
This lot has no reserve. Notice Regarding the Sale of Ivory and Tortoiseshell Prospective purchasers are advised that several countries prohibit the importation of property containing ivory or tortoiseshell. Accordingly, prospective purchasers should familiarize themselves with relevant customs regulations prior to bidding if they intend to import this lot into another country.

Lot Essay

André-Charles Boulle, appointed Ebéniste, Ciseleur, Doreur et Sculpteur du Roi in 1672.
Adrien Dubois, maître in 1741, acting as a restorer.

CROZAT DE THIERS

Louis-Antoine Crozat (1693-1770), baron de Thiers, marquis de Moy, Maréchal de Camp des armées under Louis XV and Governor of Champagne, inherited, together with his two brothers, the considerable fortunes of both his uncle Pierre Crozat (1665-1740) and that of his father Antoine (1655-1738), dit le Riche. His uncle amassed a fortune of more than 19,000 deniers, as well as a capital collection of pictures and sculptures.

Louis-Antoine Crozat married Marie-Louise-Augustine de Montmorency-Laval in 1726, with whom he had three daughters, and they resided in the hôtel d'Evreux, in the place Vendôme, which his uncle had commissioned from the architect Bullet. An avid bibliophile, Louis-Antoine Crozat de Thiers left an important collection of pictures at his death, which were subsequently acquired by Catherine the Great. Pierre Crozat and his brother Antoine were both clients of Boulle and several pieces of furniture by this ébéniste are described in the Inventories taken following their deaths.

This console is identical - save for the marquetry top and male masks - to that also stamped by Adrien Dubois in the Jones Collection at the Victoria & Albert museum, London (illustrated in O. Brackett, Catalogue of the Jones Collection, Vol.I, London, 1922, no.5, pl.3, inv.1021-1882). The fact that these two tables directly reflect each other - one being en première partie, the other en contre-partie - that they are of identical dimensions and that both are stamped by Adrien Dubois (d.1757) would suggest a hypothesis that they were supplied as a pair to the same collector.

This hypothesis is perhaps conclusively supported by the mention of two consoles in the sale that took place in early 1771 following the death of baron de Thiers in 1770:

This second console, in spite of the subsequent alterations, can be definitively linked to lot 1120. The number of legs, the marquetry en contre-partie, the dimensions and the female heads correspond exactly. The catalogue reference par Boulle, moreover, places the console firmly within Boulle's oeuvre, to whom it could anyway have been attributed on stylistic grounds alone. It is unusual that they were described as tables rather than consoles.

This table's elegance of line, standing upon four high legs with female masks, as well as the sinuous movement of the apron points to a date of around 1725.


ADRIEN DUBOIS

Born a little after 1715 in Artois, Adrien Dubois, dit Dubois, an ébéniste and graveur, received his apprenticeship in the atelier of Bernard I van Risen Burgh. In 1738, on the death of the latter for whom Dubois was making clock-cases, Dubois became head of the workshop. On 29 June 1740 he married Marie-Geneviève Mondon, the daughter of the ébéniste François Mondon. Bernard II van Risen Burgh was a witness at their marriage and, six months later, on 16 January 1741, he became maître as the son-in-law of a maître. Juré between 1748-50, in 1754 he was a witness at the marriage of Marguerite van Risen Burgh, the daughter of BVRB II.

Based in the faubourg Saint-Antoine, in 1756 Dubois was responsible for estimating the stock of his fellow ébéniste Jean-Pierre Latz. Not having any children, the couple had made a donation mutuelle in 1751 and Dubois died on 2 October 1757. His stock, furniture etc... was bought back by his widow for 8,000 livres, indicating a certain prosperity.

The small number of pieces of furniture recorded bearing Dubois' stamp, which according to Guild regulations he ought to have used during the 16 years of his maîtrise, would suggest that he worked almost exclusively for the marchands-merciers. The restoration of Boulle furniture, however, would appear to have been amongst his
specialities, as he is known to have stamped the celebrated Ashburnham bureau plat in his capacity as a restorer (sold from the collection of M. Hubert de Givenchy, Christie's Monaco, 4 December 1993, lot 68).

THE CHUTES

These same distinctive chutes, as well as the satyr-masks to the reverse, can also be seen in the oeuvre of Etienne Doirat (1675-1732) on the table à trumeau in the Residenz, Bamberg (discussed in J.-D. Augarde, 'Etienne Doirat, Menuisier en Ebène', The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, Vol.13/1985, pp.33-52). Doirat is known to have used the bronziers Jullien Boucher (maître-fondeur before 1722) and Pierre Marchand (d.1748), and the latter may conceivably have been patronised by Boulle also. However, the practice of aftercasts was certainly widespread until the patenting of models by the Guild in 1766.

THE ENGLISH PROVENANCE

At some point in the 19th Century, both this console and its pair were offered on the market, in all probability in England, in that both were acquired by English collectors. John Jones (d.1882) is known to have been buying actively from the 1840's until his death and subsequent bequest to the South Kensington Museum. Similarly, both the 1st Earl Beauchamp (d.1816) and his Countess, who owned an apartment in Paris, as well as their son William, 2nd Earl (d.1823) are known to have been avid Francophile collectors, and the latter - or possibly his brother John, 3rd Earl, who succeded to the title that same year - is known to have been a buyer at the sale of William Beckford's
Fonthill in 1823.

In Lord Gwydir's sale at Christie's, 20-21 May 1829, lot 83 was described as A SUPERB PIER TABLE, of the finest boule, of scalloped form, the legs embellished with female busts and foliage, in bold taste, and otherwise ornamented with or-moulu (£58 16s to Emanuel). The lack of any description of either a marquetry or marble top - unlike the rest of the Gwydir sale - would suggest that this table had either a relatively plainly veneered top, or leather.

Frustratingly, this console does not feature in any of the Inventories of Madresfield Court, the Lygon's ancestral home, drawn up during the 19th Century (dated 1823, 1853 and 1895 respectively). However, the Earls Beauchamp also maintained a substantial London house at 13 Belgrave Square throughout the 19th Century, as well as Springhill, Gloucestershire (between 1816-60), and these were equally sumptuously furnished. Sadly, no Inventories of either house have so far come to light in the family papers, but whilst there was a sale of some of the contents of Spring Hill in the 1860's, other pieces were taken to the London house. When this console was sold in 1990, it was removed from Lady Beauchamp's London house, and in view of the lack of references in the Madresfield Inventories, it was in all probability never taken to Madresfield, but instead passed by descent at either Spring Hill or in London.

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