Lot Essay
Jean Boucault, maître menuisier in 1728.
These remarkable, sculptural fauteuils à la Reine belong to a suite considered by B. Pallot, in his Furniture Collections in the Louvre, Paris, 1993, vol. II, p. 87, no. 26, to be the masterpiece of Jean Boucault. They are en suite with the six fauteuils and canapé, previously in the collection of Mme. Walter-Guillaume and now in the Musée du Louvre (see: B. Pallot, Furniture Collection in the Louvre, Paris, 1993, p. 87) and with another fauteuil à la Reine from the Baron James de Rothschild Collection, sold anonymously in Paris on 5 December 1930, 1 December 1966 and 18 March 1980 and illustrated in B. Pallot, L'Art du Siège au XVIIIème Siècle en France, Paris, 1987, p. 34-5, fig. 131.
Boucault's most important patron was the duc de Choiseul. In 1763 for La Chambre du Lit of the duc's Parisian hôtel in the rue de Richelieu, he supplied the bed, the fauteuils and ottomane which were gilded by Louis Aubry (maître in 1774). This seat furniture, which was covered in summer with a basin brodé and in winter with gilt and blue damask, can be seen on the celebrated Boîte de Choiseul painted by Louis Nicolas van Blarenberghe circa 1770-1 (illustrated in A. Kenneth Snowman, Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Europe, London, 1990, p. 216-217, plates 437-442) while for the Grand Salon de Compagnie, the menuisier supplied the sieges meublants à chassis and fauteuils en cabriolet for 2500 Livres.
Six fauteuils, stamped by the maître, with simpler carving, which were also supplied to the duc de Choiseul for the chäteau de Chanteloup, are now in the Musée de Tours.
Jean Boucault (circa 1705-86) was admitted as maître menuisier in 1728 and set up business in a house belonging to Nicolas Tilliard in the rue de Cléry. On the death of his wife, Marie-Genevière Toffie, in 1737, the valuation of his workshop by Charles Cresson and Nicolas Foliot included ten workbenches and a stock of seats à rouleaux. Working in close collaboration with the carver Jean Valois, Boucault's other important patrons included Louise-Elizabeth, duchesse of Parma, to whom he supplied seat-furniture either directly or through the intermediary of a marchand tapissier, and Prince Camille de Lorraine, who owed him the substantial sum of 2249 Livres in 1762
These remarkable, sculptural fauteuils à la Reine belong to a suite considered by B. Pallot, in his Furniture Collections in the Louvre, Paris, 1993, vol. II, p. 87, no. 26, to be the masterpiece of Jean Boucault. They are en suite with the six fauteuils and canapé, previously in the collection of Mme. Walter-Guillaume and now in the Musée du Louvre (see: B. Pallot, Furniture Collection in the Louvre, Paris, 1993, p. 87) and with another fauteuil à la Reine from the Baron James de Rothschild Collection, sold anonymously in Paris on 5 December 1930, 1 December 1966 and 18 March 1980 and illustrated in B. Pallot, L'Art du Siège au XVIIIème Siècle en France, Paris, 1987, p. 34-5, fig. 131.
Boucault's most important patron was the duc de Choiseul. In 1763 for La Chambre du Lit of the duc's Parisian hôtel in the rue de Richelieu, he supplied the bed, the fauteuils and ottomane which were gilded by Louis Aubry (maître in 1774). This seat furniture, which was covered in summer with a basin brodé and in winter with gilt and blue damask, can be seen on the celebrated Boîte de Choiseul painted by Louis Nicolas van Blarenberghe circa 1770-1 (illustrated in A. Kenneth Snowman, Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Europe, London, 1990, p. 216-217, plates 437-442) while for the Grand Salon de Compagnie, the menuisier supplied the sieges meublants à chassis and fauteuils en cabriolet for 2500 Livres.
Six fauteuils, stamped by the maître, with simpler carving, which were also supplied to the duc de Choiseul for the chäteau de Chanteloup, are now in the Musée de Tours.
Jean Boucault (circa 1705-86) was admitted as maître menuisier in 1728 and set up business in a house belonging to Nicolas Tilliard in the rue de Cléry. On the death of his wife, Marie-Genevière Toffie, in 1737, the valuation of his workshop by Charles Cresson and Nicolas Foliot included ten workbenches and a stock of seats à rouleaux. Working in close collaboration with the carver Jean Valois, Boucault's other important patrons included Louise-Elizabeth, duchesse of Parma, to whom he supplied seat-furniture either directly or through the intermediary of a marchand tapissier, and Prince Camille de Lorraine, who owed him the substantial sum of 2249 Livres in 1762