A PAIR OF LOUIS XIV ORMOLU-MOUNTED, EBONISED AND BOULLE MARQUETRY PEDESTAL CABINETS, decorated en contrepartie, each with rectangular portor marble top above an egg-and-dart moulding and an acanthus-leaf moulding, the frieze drawer decorated with strapwork and flanked by paterae, above one long panelled door with central cartouche decorated with foliate strapwork and engraved with foliate scrolls within an acanthus border enclosing an interior with shelf flanked by Bacchic masks with vine-leaf trails, each side with with a mount depicting one of the four seasons, the base with waved apron and bracket feet and centred by a Bacchic mask flanked by paterae, reconstructed

Details

A PAIR OF LOUIS XIV ORMOLU-MOUNTED, EBONISED AND BOULLE MARQUETRY PEDESTAL CABINETS, decorated en contrepartie, each with rectangular portor marble top above an egg-and-dart moulding and an acanthus-leaf moulding, the frieze drawer decorated with strapwork and flanked by paterae, above one long panelled door with central cartouche decorated with foliate strapwork and engraved with foliate scrolls within an acanthus border enclosing an interior with shelf flanked by Bacchic masks with vine-leaf trails, each side with with a mount depicting one of the four seasons, the base with waved apron and bracket feet and centred by a Bacchic mask flanked by paterae, reconstructed
28in. (71cm.) wide; 47½in. (121cm.) high; 13in. (33cm.) deep (2)

Provenance

The Dukes of Gordon, acquired in the 18th Century
Elizabeth, 5th Duchess of Gordon (1794-1864) née Brodie, by inheritance from her husband, the 5th Duke of Gordon (married 1830) and who died childless in 1864
The Brodie of Brodie, Brodie Castle, Elgin, Scotland

Lot Essay

The mounts depicting the Four Seasons are a well-known Boulle model and appear on numerous pieces from the Boulle workshop. The Wallace Collection contains a number of pieces with these mounts. A side cabinet stamped Joseph displays the figures of Bacchus and Ceres (F. J. B. Watson, Catalogue, London, 1956, F. 383). Bacchus and Hiems appear on the armoires F. 61 and F. 62, and on the pedestal cabinets F. 393 and F. 394. Bacchus and Ceres appear on a wardrobe F. 63. The decoration of the inside of the doors on the armoire F. 61 is very similar to that on the doors of these two cabinets

A pair of similar pedestal cabinets from the H. Bouvier Collection in the Musée Carnavalet, Paris, is illustrated Collection Henriette Bouvier, leguée au Musée Carnavalet, Paris, 1958, N^o^.3

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