Lot Essay
This table en chiffonière is closely related to the oeuvre of Nicolas Pierre Severin. Appointed maître in 1757, Severin worked from the rue Dauphine and, like Levasseur, Montigny and Georges Jacob, he was employed by the Garde-Meuble for the repair of Louis XIV Boulle furniture. With its ivory inlay and pictorial marquetry, popularised by Boulle and his contemporaries, this table en chiffonière displays a virtually identical marquetry panel to that on a commode by Severin, formerly in the collection of Baron Albert de Rothschild and sold anonymously at Christie's New York, 21 November 1984, lot 191 (illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Francais du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1989, p. 19 and 821). In particular, the distincitve chequerbanding and foliate trailed legs suggests an attribution to Severin, even though the marquetry itself was almost certainly supplied by a specialist marqueteur
A further table, unstamped, with the same ormolu frame, was sold anonymously at Hotel Drouot, Paris, Maître Delorme, 21 December 1987, no. 63. Finally, related marquetry appears on a jewel cabinet, formerly in the colloection of the marquise de Luart and sold from the Jaime Ortiz Patiño Collection at Sotheby's New York, 20 May 1992,lot 71
A further table, unstamped, with the same ormolu frame, was sold anonymously at Hotel Drouot, Paris, Maître Delorme, 21 December 1987, no. 63. Finally, related marquetry appears on a jewel cabinet, formerly in the colloection of the marquise de Luart and sold from the Jaime Ortiz Patiño Collection at Sotheby's New York, 20 May 1992,lot 71