Lot Essay
LOUIS XV 'BUREAUX AMARANTE'
Several bureaux plats display identical angle mounts:
1. Previously in the Bavarian Royal Collection and now in the Bayerische Nationalmuseum, Munich. A. Pradère attributes it to Noel Gerard in Les Ebénistes Francais de Louis XIV à la Revolution, Paris, 1989, p. 111
2. The collection of Baron Thyssen-Bornemizzza, Madrid
3. Previously in the collection of the comte de Pourtales, sold in these Rooms, 16 April 1959, lot 73
4. Anonymous sale, Sotheby's New York, 7 May 1983, lot 210
5. Stamped GODRO, sold anonymously at Sotheby's Monaco, 12 February 1979, lot 239
6. Stamped by Louis Delaitre, sold at Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Maître Ferri, 7 July 1992, lot 159
Executed in either ebony or amaranth, this group, with their identical angle mounts, must have been executed in the same atelier in the early Louis XV period
Several bureaux plats in amaranth are recorded but they are, unfortunately, badly described. The Regent, the duc d'Orléans, possessed one 'à compartiments de bandes de cuivre' and with pieds de bîche while the 1732 inventory of the cabinet of the financier Peyrenc de Moras records 'un bureau de bois d'amarante couvert de maroquin noir garni de trois tiroirs, le dit bureau à cordon du cuivre et orné de bronze doré d'or moulu'
Their enduring popularity is further confirmed as late as 1731-2, when Antoine-Robert Gaudreaux delivered 'trois petits bureau en amarante dont deux à filets de buis' to the garde-meuble de la couronne
Several bureaux plats display identical angle mounts:
1. Previously in the Bavarian Royal Collection and now in the Bayerische Nationalmuseum, Munich. A. Pradère attributes it to Noel Gerard in Les Ebénistes Francais de Louis XIV à la Revolution, Paris, 1989, p. 111
2. The collection of Baron Thyssen-Bornemizzza, Madrid
3. Previously in the collection of the comte de Pourtales, sold in these Rooms, 16 April 1959, lot 73
4. Anonymous sale, Sotheby's New York, 7 May 1983, lot 210
5. Stamped GODRO, sold anonymously at Sotheby's Monaco, 12 February 1979, lot 239
6. Stamped by Louis Delaitre, sold at Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Maître Ferri, 7 July 1992, lot 159
Executed in either ebony or amaranth, this group, with their identical angle mounts, must have been executed in the same atelier in the early Louis XV period
Several bureaux plats in amaranth are recorded but they are, unfortunately, badly described. The Regent, the duc d'Orléans, possessed one 'à compartiments de bandes de cuivre' and with pieds de bîche while the 1732 inventory of the cabinet of the financier Peyrenc de Moras records 'un bureau de bois d'amarante couvert de maroquin noir garni de trois tiroirs, le dit bureau à cordon du cuivre et orné de bronze doré d'or moulu'
Their enduring popularity is further confirmed as late as 1731-2, when Antoine-Robert Gaudreaux delivered 'trois petits bureau en amarante dont deux à filets de buis' to the garde-meuble de la couronne