AN ORMOLU-MOUNTED WALNUT AND PARQUETRY COMMODE, the brèche violette marble top with a moulded edge above a pair of central doors and two doors flanking, each outlined with an ormolu-moulded and foliate-cast border, the apron centred by a foliate cartouche, the front angles with two winged espagnolette caryatid figures with foliate-cast uprights, the legs terminating in stylized conch shell and foliate-cast feet (some slight veneer chips), late 19th Century

Details

AN ORMOLU-MOUNTED WALNUT AND PARQUETRY COMMODE, the brèche violette marble top with a moulded edge above a pair of central doors and two doors flanking, each outlined with an ormolu-moulded and foliate-cast border, the apron centred by a foliate cartouche, the front angles with two winged espagnolette caryatid figures with foliate-cast uprights, the legs terminating in stylized conch shell and foliate-cast feet (some slight veneer chips), late 19th Century
64¼in. (163cm.) wide; 35½in. (90cm.) high; 26½in. (67.5cm.) deep

Lot Essay

The serpentined frame, in the French picturesque style of the 1740s, has its trellised parquetry panels framed by ormolu scrolls with flower-entwined acanthus, in the manner associated with Jacques Caffiéri. Related mounts on a commode sold Sotheby's, New York, 19th September 1990, lot 311, bore the brand of Beurdeley, the celebrated 19th Century Parisian firm.

The arabesque harpy caryatids derive from a pattern by André-Charles Boulle. (See H. Ottomeyer, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, vol. 11, 1986, fig. 1)

More from The 19th Century

View All