Lot Essay
The commode's brass-veneered top is richly inlaid with tortoiseshell in the Louis XIV 'antique' or 'arabesque' manner, and this includes a broad band framing a festive 'Triumph of Venus' cartouche and two lesser ones of seated and lyre-playing Indian figures.
Venus and Cupid, who are portrayed on a shell borne by zephry-winged merfolk, stand beneath a baldequin within a trellised triumphal-arch, which derives from an engraving of a marine triumph published in the 1680's by Jean Berain (d. 1711), Dessinateur de la Chambre et du Cabinet du Roi in his Grotesques. Festive ribbon-tied cartouches with shell-decked nymph-masks provide the central escutcheons for the tripartite-panelled drawers, and these masks are echoed in the 'boulle' inlay, which frames the handles, and accompany satyr-masks and insect-hunting birds, such as appear on the top.
A related commode, with satyr-mask escutcheons, (sold from Donacomper, Co. Kildare, Christie's House Sale, 25 July 1977, lot 75) has the same patterned panels framing the handles, but these are in contre partie boulle, while its matching top is centred by an Indian hunter in place of the marine trophy. A note attached to his commode stated that it was bought in Paris in the early 19th Century by William Kirkpatrick (d. 1844).
A commode with similar mounts and drawer panels, but with scrolled angle-brackets terminating in satyr-hooves was sold Christie's 4 June 1970, lot 67.
Venus and Cupid, who are portrayed on a shell borne by zephry-winged merfolk, stand beneath a baldequin within a trellised triumphal-arch, which derives from an engraving of a marine triumph published in the 1680's by Jean Berain (d. 1711), Dessinateur de la Chambre et du Cabinet du Roi in his Grotesques. Festive ribbon-tied cartouches with shell-decked nymph-masks provide the central escutcheons for the tripartite-panelled drawers, and these masks are echoed in the 'boulle' inlay, which frames the handles, and accompany satyr-masks and insect-hunting birds, such as appear on the top.
A related commode, with satyr-mask escutcheons, (sold from Donacomper, Co. Kildare, Christie's House Sale, 25 July 1977, lot 75) has the same patterned panels framing the handles, but these are in contre partie boulle, while its matching top is centred by an Indian hunter in place of the marine trophy. A note attached to his commode stated that it was bought in Paris in the early 19th Century by William Kirkpatrick (d. 1844).
A commode with similar mounts and drawer panels, but with scrolled angle-brackets terminating in satyr-hooves was sold Christie's 4 June 1970, lot 67.