Lot Essay
This distinguished secreétaire forms part of a group of furniture stamped by various ébenistes but inset with similar pictorial marquetry panels. The panels depict rural scenes and often, as here, classical capriccii. The marquetry is frequently closely related in both design and execution. It has been convincingly suggested that some ébenistes purchased panels of pictorial marquetry from specialist inlayers and constructed their own furniture around them (see G. de Bellaigue, 'Engravings and the French Eighteenth-Century Marqueteur' Burlington Magazine, May 1965, pp. 240-250 (I), and July 1965, pp. 356-363 (II). Various names have been suggested for the inlayer involved but none yet seems more likely than the others.
André-Louis Gilbert, Léonard Boudin. Charles Topino, Pierre Roussel and Perre Denizot all used marquetry panels of this type but in pieces of furniture that have nothing in common with each other. The panels all use stained wood, often green, and depict architectural scenes of various types with more or less ivory inlay. Perhaps the best known examples of this type are the grup of two tables and a métier à brodier in the Jones Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (see O. Brackett, Catalogue, London, 1922, pls. 35-36, figs. 65-67). In a separate article within his le Mobilier Français du
XVIII Siècle, Paris 1989, pp. 792-293, entiltled Plusieurs
Ebénistes, un seul marqueteur?, Pierre Kjellberg suggested that the marqueteur might be Jean-Georges Schlictig (d.1782) although he admits that Daniel Deloose (d.1788) is at least as strong a candidate.
The issue of the individual marqueteur is clouded by the presence of an identifiable sub-group, incuding the Sobell secreétaire, of pieces with a distinctive ribbon-tied laurel border around the eared pictorial panels. These borders have flowerheads at their corners, either in marquetry or ormolu. A secrétaire of very similar design to the present lot and with the characteristic borders and corners was sold from the Cartier collection, Sotheby's Monaco, 25-27 November 1979, lot 167. The Jones tables and Métier à broder share the border. The presence of the stamps of Jansen, Deloose and Jacques-Laurent Cosson (maître in 1765) on some or all of the Jones pieces does little to clarify the identity of the inlayer.
Although he did work as a marchand-ébeniste it appears that at least the carcase of this secreétaire was made by Pierre Macret (b.1727). A secrétaire that appears to be identical to the present lot was sold from the estate of the late Harriet S. Jonas, Sotheby's New York, 19 April 1975, lot 90. It was also stamped by Macret and the only visible difference is the addition of apron and foot mounts. The apron mounts corresponds to that on a parquetry secreétaire by Macret that was sold anonymously, Sotheby's London, 3 July 1959, lot 142. Macret used the same fashionable lockplates on the group of lacquered tôle commdes that he produced in the early 1770's (see A. Pradère, French Furniture Makers, Paris, 1989, pp. 220-221, figs. 218-220).
The source of these particular ruin scenes has not been identified but it is likely that they are taken from engravings such as those of architectural subjects after the paintings by P-A. de Machy (1723-1807), (see G. de Bellaigue, 'Ruins in Marquetry', Apollo, vol. LXXXVII, January 1968, pp. 12-21).
André-Louis Gilbert, Léonard Boudin. Charles Topino, Pierre Roussel and Perre Denizot all used marquetry panels of this type but in pieces of furniture that have nothing in common with each other. The panels all use stained wood, often green, and depict architectural scenes of various types with more or less ivory inlay. Perhaps the best known examples of this type are the grup of two tables and a métier à brodier in the Jones Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (see O. Brackett, Catalogue, London, 1922, pls. 35-36, figs. 65-67). In a separate article within his le Mobilier Français du
XVIII Siècle, Paris 1989, pp. 792-293, entiltled Plusieurs
Ebénistes, un seul marqueteur?, Pierre Kjellberg suggested that the marqueteur might be Jean-Georges Schlictig (d.1782) although he admits that Daniel Deloose (d.1788) is at least as strong a candidate.
The issue of the individual marqueteur is clouded by the presence of an identifiable sub-group, incuding the Sobell secreétaire, of pieces with a distinctive ribbon-tied laurel border around the eared pictorial panels. These borders have flowerheads at their corners, either in marquetry or ormolu. A secrétaire of very similar design to the present lot and with the characteristic borders and corners was sold from the Cartier collection, Sotheby's Monaco, 25-27 November 1979, lot 167. The Jones tables and Métier à broder share the border. The presence of the stamps of Jansen, Deloose and Jacques-Laurent Cosson (maître in 1765) on some or all of the Jones pieces does little to clarify the identity of the inlayer.
Although he did work as a marchand-ébeniste it appears that at least the carcase of this secreétaire was made by Pierre Macret (b.1727). A secrétaire that appears to be identical to the present lot was sold from the estate of the late Harriet S. Jonas, Sotheby's New York, 19 April 1975, lot 90. It was also stamped by Macret and the only visible difference is the addition of apron and foot mounts. The apron mounts corresponds to that on a parquetry secreétaire by Macret that was sold anonymously, Sotheby's London, 3 July 1959, lot 142. Macret used the same fashionable lockplates on the group of lacquered tôle commdes that he produced in the early 1770's (see A. Pradère, French Furniture Makers, Paris, 1989, pp. 220-221, figs. 218-220).
The source of these particular ruin scenes has not been identified but it is likely that they are taken from engravings such as those of architectural subjects after the paintings by P-A. de Machy (1723-1807), (see G. de Bellaigue, 'Ruins in Marquetry', Apollo, vol. LXXXVII, January 1968, pp. 12-21).