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Lot Essay
This elegant commode typifies the taste for furniture mounted with expensive lacquer promoted by the marchand-merciers of the mid-18th Century. It relates to a group of lacquer commodes with similar trailing foliate rococo mounts which were also produced by ébénistes such as Mathieu Criaerd (maître in 1738), and François Rübestuck (maître in 1766). Wolff executed numerous commodes, secretaires and encoignures embellished with costly lacquer, but also with marquetry with exotic scenes (P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1989, pp. 874-878). A closely related commode was sold at Sotheby's Monaco, 23/24 June 1985, lot 806 (FF 444,000).
The incredible art collection of the Austrian branch of the Rothschild family was carefully formed over many generations. It had already reached a considerable size in the mid-19th Century and the Katalog der Kunstsammlung des Freiherrn Anselm von Rothschild which was published in 1872 listed no less than 600 items, including two portraits by Frans Hals and the celebrated Rothschild prayerbook. The collection was mainly housed in the palace in the Theresianumgasse in Vienna, but also at the hunting lodge, Hohe Warte, and at Schloss Schillersdorf. The collection of furniture included several important exquisite examples of French ébénisterie, such as the Louis XVI commode by Jean-Henri Riesener from the Bibliotheque of King Louis XVI at Versailles and the Louis XVI regulateur de parquet by Ferdinand Berthoud, Balthazar Lieutaud and Philippe Caffieri, which was supplied to the Duc de Choiseul (sold from the collection of the Barons Nathaniel and Albert von Rothschild, in these Rooms, 8 July 1999, lots 201 and 207).
The incredible art collection of the Austrian branch of the Rothschild family was carefully formed over many generations. It had already reached a considerable size in the mid-19th Century and the Katalog der Kunstsammlung des Freiherrn Anselm von Rothschild which was published in 1872 listed no less than 600 items, including two portraits by Frans Hals and the celebrated Rothschild prayerbook. The collection was mainly housed in the palace in the Theresianumgasse in Vienna, but also at the hunting lodge, Hohe Warte, and at Schloss Schillersdorf. The collection of furniture included several important exquisite examples of French ébénisterie, such as the Louis XVI commode by Jean-Henri Riesener from the Bibliotheque of King Louis XVI at Versailles and the Louis XVI regulateur de parquet by Ferdinand Berthoud, Balthazar Lieutaud and Philippe Caffieri, which was supplied to the Duc de Choiseul (sold from the collection of the Barons Nathaniel and Albert von Rothschild, in these Rooms, 8 July 1999, lots 201 and 207).