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Lot Essay
This table (and lot 42) belongs to a group of tables all stamped by Lacroix of similar design, size and decoration. In shape, each table has a circular or oval top and undertier, centered by spiral-acanthus reserves, upon distinctive double-curved cabriole legs and nearly identical fitted frieze drawer. The same ormolu angle and sabot mounts and also similarly patterned trellis marquetry containing corn-flowers also serve to define the group. Among these comparables, the present table is exceptional for its hidden spring-loaded drawers that flank the frieze drawer, a feature known in only one other example illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français: du style Transition à l'Art Déco, Paris, 1980, p. 23, fig. 21.
Other related examples include: an oval one at Waddesdon Manor, illustrated in G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor: Furniture, Clocks and Gilt Bronzes, London, 1974, vol. II, cat. no. 98; another oval table formerly in the Henry Walters Collection, illustrated in C. Packer, Paris Furniture by the Master Ébénistes, Newport, 1956, fig. 120; a third oval example is illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Le Meuble Français et Européen du Moyen Age à nos jours, Paris, 1991, p. 281, fig. 317; a fourth was purchased by King George IV in 1829 and is now in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle; and two more tables both sold from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Deane Johnson, Sotheby Parke-Bernet, 9 December 1972, lots 106 and 112.
A further closely related table by RVLC, but with striped parquetry ground rather than cornflowers, is in the Musée Cognacq-Jay and is illustrated in C. Massin, Le Mobilier Louis XVI, Paris, n.d., p.77.
Roger van der Cruse, dit Lacroix, was born the son of the ouvrier libre François van der Cruse in 1728. As was typical of the time when the guild system defined ones social standing as well as more personal contacts, Roger's three sisters all married maître-ébénistes. Elected maître in 1755, Roger took over his father's business and was soon supplying furniture to the ébéniste Pierre II Migeon, the marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier and directly to Madame du Barry at Louveciennes, the Garde-Meuble and the duc d'Orléans.
Other related examples include: an oval one at Waddesdon Manor, illustrated in G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor: Furniture, Clocks and Gilt Bronzes, London, 1974, vol. II, cat. no. 98; another oval table formerly in the Henry Walters Collection, illustrated in C. Packer, Paris Furniture by the Master Ébénistes, Newport, 1956, fig. 120; a third oval example is illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Le Meuble Français et Européen du Moyen Age à nos jours, Paris, 1991, p. 281, fig. 317; a fourth was purchased by King George IV in 1829 and is now in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle; and two more tables both sold from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Deane Johnson, Sotheby Parke-Bernet, 9 December 1972, lots 106 and 112.
A further closely related table by RVLC, but with striped parquetry ground rather than cornflowers, is in the Musée Cognacq-Jay and is illustrated in C. Massin, Le Mobilier Louis XVI, Paris, n.d., p.77.
Roger van der Cruse, dit Lacroix, was born the son of the ouvrier libre François van der Cruse in 1728. As was typical of the time when the guild system defined ones social standing as well as more personal contacts, Roger's three sisters all married maître-ébénistes. Elected maître in 1755, Roger took over his father's business and was soon supplying furniture to the ébéniste Pierre II Migeon, the marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier and directly to Madame du Barry at Louveciennes, the Garde-Meuble and the duc d'Orléans.