MID-18TH CENTURY

This attractive and enigmatic commode in the French Louis XV manner was clearly inspired by a prestigious Parisian model. Its most distinctive feature is the mounts which spread over the front in a free, buoyant manner. The way the handles are treated as trailing branches was introduced in the 1730s by the great Parisian ébénistes Charles Cressent (1685-1768) and Antoine Gaudreaus (c. 1682-1751). In the ensuing decades, it was only adopted by a small number of major cabinet-makers. The present commode is particularly close to a model by Jean-Pierre Latz (c. 1691-1754) who is known to have made many of his own mounts and therefore had the exclusive use of them (H. Hawley, 'Jean-Pierre Latz, cabinetmaker', Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum 57 (1970), pp. 204-208). Two nearly identical examples are in the Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome (A. González-Palacios, Il patrimonio artistico del Quirinale, Gli arredi francesi, Milan 1996, No. 1, stamped by Latz) and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles (G. Wilson and C. Hess, Summary catalogue of European decorative arts, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 2001, No. 27, attributed to Latz). They share with the present commode the large central cartouche and the unusually prominent keyhole escutcheons, as well as the trailing branches serving as handles. Even the distinctive feature of the Latz commodes of a metal moulding dividing the drawers appears to have been translated on the offered commode into the rosewood crossbanding. Latz worked for a number of foreign patrons, notably King Frederick the Great of Prussia and Augustus III, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland (Hawley, pp. 208-209). Frederick the Great, in particular, is known to have imported Parisian works of art principally as inspiration for local artists and manufactories whose development he was keen to foster. However, the commode shows few similarities to known examples of Berlin cabinet-making of the mid-18th century; nor does it seem particularly close to the Dresden production of that period, although Latz models were copied there (see G. Haase, Dresdener Möbel des 18. Jahrhunderts, Leipzig 1993, cat. nos. 41 and 246, figs. 125 and 127). In particular, the strongly graphic quality of the mounts stands out and can not be easily paralleled on other pieces of furniture. An intriguing possibility is that the commode was made in Poland, where Augustus III instigated important building works.