Lot Essay
The serpentined commode, designed in the Louis XV picturesque manner, is decorated with birds and butterflies amongst a paridisical varie-flowered shrub, recalling exotic Indian chintzes. Its airily entwined tendrils, springing from a fruiting pomegranate and clasped in a tripartite-cartouche frame of scrolled-ribbon bands, features on a writing-table supplied in the late 1750s to the duc d'Orleans by the widow of the Parisian ébéniste Jean-Pierre Latz and Denis Genty (offered by Christie's Monaco, 2nd September 1993, lot 173)
Recalling the fruit and flowers portrayed in the chinoiserie furniture patterns published by Johann Michael Hoppenhampt in 1753, the design of the marquetry is in turn related to the ouevre of the Spindler family workshops in Bayreuth and Potsdam around 1760 (see: S. Sangl. 'Spindler', Furniture History Journal, Leeds, 1991, pp. 22-34)
A pair of closely related commodes, probably of a slightly earlier period and more monumental form, was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 19 May 1993, lot 185
Recalling the fruit and flowers portrayed in the chinoiserie furniture patterns published by Johann Michael Hoppenhampt in 1753, the design of the marquetry is in turn related to the ouevre of the Spindler family workshops in Bayreuth and Potsdam around 1760 (see: S. Sangl. 'Spindler', Furniture History Journal, Leeds, 1991, pp. 22-34)
A pair of closely related commodes, probably of a slightly earlier period and more monumental form, was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 19 May 1993, lot 185