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Lot Essay
The C Couronné poinçon was a tax mark employed between March 1745 and February 1749 on any alloy containing copper.
An identical bureau stamped by Jacques Dubois was in the collection of the Dukes of Buckingham at Stowe, Buckinghamshire in the 19th Century, Subsequently sold in the 1848 sale, it was resold at Christie's London, 23 June 1937, lot 184.
The design of this bureau, with its generous proportions, was used by Jacques Dubois on an exceptional group of lacqueur bureau en pente. These comprise:- one from the collection of Marcel Bissey, sold Binoche et Godeau, Paris, 6 November 1991, lot 27; one from the collection of Lady Ludlow, Bath House, sold Christie's London, 25-26 November 1946, lot 160; one from the collection of Octave Homberg, sold Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 15 March 1933, lot 301; one from the collection of Max von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, sold Berlin, 16 March 1931, lot 123 and resold by Albert von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, Berlin, 14 March 1933, lot 25; another supplied to the marquis de la Vallière, sold at Christie's London, 3 December 1981, lot 109 and subsequently at Christie's New York, 21 May 1996, lot 346 ($706,500), also stamped.
The marquetry decoration en bois de bout is characteristic of Dubois, particularly the way the flowers are inlaid onto a parquetry satiné ground (cf. the examples sold at Christie's London, 7 December 1995, lot 70 or Sotheby's London, 25 March 1960, lot 179.)
Perhaps the closest parallels can be drawn with the oeuvre of Bernard van Risen Burgh (BVRB). A related bureau by the latter was delivered by the marchand-mercier Haébert to the Garde-Meuble on 18 February 1745 for the Dauphine at Versailles (A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes Françis de Louis XIV à la Revolution, 1989, p. 192. fig. 179). Supplied for the cabinet de retraite de Madame la Dauphine, it is first described in the Journal du Garde-Meuble on 23 January 1745:-
No.1344 - Un sécrétaire de bois satiné fleur de placage de bois violet dans des compartiments de bois d'amarante, enrichi d'ornements, moulures, cartouches, encoignures, et pieds de bronze dor d'ormoulu. Le devant s'abat et forme une table couverte de velours bleu encastr qui se pose sur deux tirants mobiles de bois d'amarante termins de boutons dorer. En dedans sont six tiroirs, dont deux grands et quatre petits, dans l'un desquels droite est un encrier, poudrier et une bote ponge de cuivre argent, garnis de tapis bleu et bords d'une petite tresse d'or. Long de 31 pouces sur 18 pouces de profondeur et 30 pouces de haut.
Bureaux en pente of this unusually large size are rare and must have been commissioned by a patron of considerable standing. This is certainly the case with that by BVRB - although à dos d'âne - now in the J. Paul Getty Museum (C. Bremer-David, Decorative Arts, An Illustrated Summary Catalogue of the Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1993, p. 36, no. 41). This was originally supplied to the fermier général François Balthazar Dang (d.1777). A further bureau of this same scale in bois de bout, but again by BVRB, was sold from the Alexander Collection, Christies' New York, 30 April 1999, lot 103.
JACQUES DUBOIS
Dubois was born at Pontoise on April 7, 1694. Half-brother of the great marchand-ébéniste Noel Gérard, Dubois became maître late on September 5, 1742. This fact reinforces the hypothesis that he worked in the atelier of both his half-brother and, subsequently, his widow. His two sons also became ébénistes and his daughter married another, Goyer. As his business prospered, he used increasingly the vernisseur Huitre for lacquer. Dubois designed and owned the models for his bronzes and subcontracted the casting to the bronziers Heban, Forestier and Castellier and the subsequent gilding to the doreur, Nicolas-Claude Hamelin. The design of these specific bronzes and the perfection of their ciselure allows us therefore to attribute this unstamped bureau categorically to Dubois.
An identical bureau stamped by Jacques Dubois was in the collection of the Dukes of Buckingham at Stowe, Buckinghamshire in the 19th Century, Subsequently sold in the 1848 sale, it was resold at Christie's London, 23 June 1937, lot 184.
The design of this bureau, with its generous proportions, was used by Jacques Dubois on an exceptional group of lacqueur bureau en pente. These comprise:- one from the collection of Marcel Bissey, sold Binoche et Godeau, Paris, 6 November 1991, lot 27; one from the collection of Lady Ludlow, Bath House, sold Christie's London, 25-26 November 1946, lot 160; one from the collection of Octave Homberg, sold Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 15 March 1933, lot 301; one from the collection of Max von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, sold Berlin, 16 March 1931, lot 123 and resold by Albert von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, Berlin, 14 March 1933, lot 25; another supplied to the marquis de la Vallière, sold at Christie's London, 3 December 1981, lot 109 and subsequently at Christie's New York, 21 May 1996, lot 346 ($706,500), also stamped.
The marquetry decoration en bois de bout is characteristic of Dubois, particularly the way the flowers are inlaid onto a parquetry satiné ground (cf. the examples sold at Christie's London, 7 December 1995, lot 70 or Sotheby's London, 25 March 1960, lot 179.)
Perhaps the closest parallels can be drawn with the oeuvre of Bernard van Risen Burgh (BVRB). A related bureau by the latter was delivered by the marchand-mercier Haébert to the Garde-Meuble on 18 February 1745 for the Dauphine at Versailles (A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes Françis de Louis XIV à la Revolution, 1989, p. 192. fig. 179). Supplied for the cabinet de retraite de Madame la Dauphine, it is first described in the Journal du Garde-Meuble on 23 January 1745:-
No.1344 - Un sécrétaire de bois satiné fleur de placage de bois violet dans des compartiments de bois d'amarante, enrichi d'ornements, moulures, cartouches, encoignures, et pieds de bronze dor d'ormoulu. Le devant s'abat et forme une table couverte de velours bleu encastr qui se pose sur deux tirants mobiles de bois d'amarante termins de boutons dorer. En dedans sont six tiroirs, dont deux grands et quatre petits, dans l'un desquels droite est un encrier, poudrier et une bote ponge de cuivre argent, garnis de tapis bleu et bords d'une petite tresse d'or. Long de 31 pouces sur 18 pouces de profondeur et 30 pouces de haut.
Bureaux en pente of this unusually large size are rare and must have been commissioned by a patron of considerable standing. This is certainly the case with that by BVRB - although à dos d'âne - now in the J. Paul Getty Museum (C. Bremer-David, Decorative Arts, An Illustrated Summary Catalogue of the Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1993, p. 36, no. 41). This was originally supplied to the fermier général François Balthazar Dang (d.1777). A further bureau of this same scale in bois de bout, but again by BVRB, was sold from the Alexander Collection, Christies' New York, 30 April 1999, lot 103.
JACQUES DUBOIS
Dubois was born at Pontoise on April 7, 1694. Half-brother of the great marchand-ébéniste Noel Gérard, Dubois became maître late on September 5, 1742. This fact reinforces the hypothesis that he worked in the atelier of both his half-brother and, subsequently, his widow. His two sons also became ébénistes and his daughter married another, Goyer. As his business prospered, he used increasingly the vernisseur Huitre for lacquer. Dubois designed and owned the models for his bronzes and subcontracted the casting to the bronziers Heban, Forestier and Castellier and the subsequent gilding to the doreur, Nicolas-Claude Hamelin. The design of these specific bronzes and the perfection of their ciselure allows us therefore to attribute this unstamped bureau categorically to Dubois.