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Lot Essay
Pierre Roussel, maître in 1745.
With its elegant floral marquetry and its distinctive ormolu mounts, this commode is very closely related to that stamped by Pierre Roussel, sold in the Alexander Collection, Christie's, New York, 30 April 1999, lot 180 (de St. Pierre, Roussel was described as early as 1769 in the Almanach du Vray Merite as l'un des premiers ébénistes de Paris. Particularly renowned for his floral marquetry, often executed for the German market and characterised by the heavy use of engraving to enhance its naturalistic quality, this commode typifies Roussel's style of the early 1760s. An almost identical commode, also retaining its original engraving, but with slightly differing encadrements and rocaille angle-mounts, is illustrated from the collection of S. Chalom in P. Verlet, French Cabinetmakers of the Eighteenth Century, New York, 1965, p.131, fig.4.
The Inventory drawn up by Leleu and Cochois following Roussel's death in 1783 reveals an atelier at the height of its activity. However, whilst most of the ébénisterie appears to have been executed on the premises, often by Roussel's sons Pierre Michel (maître in 1766) and Pierre le Jeune (maître in 1771), the ormolu mounts were supplied by specialist bronziers, including Turchin, Ravrio and the doreur Trufot. It is, therefore, not surprising that some of the same mounts feature on commodes by both Mathieu Criaerd and the marchand-ébéniste Adrien-Faizelot Delorme (ibid., pp.72-3 and 117).
The prototype for the distinctive encadrement treatment of the ormolu mounts is derived from the oeuvre of the ébéniste Mathieu Criaerd, who supplied a number of masterpieces to the Garde-Meuble Royal through the famous marchand-mercier, Thomas-Joachim Hébert. Criaerd's best-known lacquered commode is the one executed in blue and white vernis and mounted in silvered bronze, which Hébert delivered in 1742 for the bedroom of Louis XV's mistress, Madame de Mailly, at the château of Choisy, now at the Louvre (Exhibition Catalogue, 'Nouvelles acquisitions du département des Objets d'art 1990-1994', Musée du Louvre 1995, No. 47; Alcouffe, No. 43). These same basic mounts also feature on the commode by Criaerd, veneered with kingwood and satinwood, which was delivered by Hébert to the Dauphin at Versailles in 1748 (D. Meyer, Le Mobilier de Versailles, Vol. I, Dijon 2002, No. 11).
With its elegant floral marquetry and its distinctive ormolu mounts, this commode is very closely related to that stamped by Pierre Roussel, sold in the Alexander Collection, Christie's, New York, 30 April 1999, lot 180 (de St. Pierre, Roussel was described as early as 1769 in the Almanach du Vray Merite as l'un des premiers ébénistes de Paris. Particularly renowned for his floral marquetry, often executed for the German market and characterised by the heavy use of engraving to enhance its naturalistic quality, this commode typifies Roussel's style of the early 1760s. An almost identical commode, also retaining its original engraving, but with slightly differing encadrements and rocaille angle-mounts, is illustrated from the collection of S. Chalom in P. Verlet, French Cabinetmakers of the Eighteenth Century, New York, 1965, p.131, fig.4.
The Inventory drawn up by Leleu and Cochois following Roussel's death in 1783 reveals an atelier at the height of its activity. However, whilst most of the ébénisterie appears to have been executed on the premises, often by Roussel's sons Pierre Michel (maître in 1766) and Pierre le Jeune (maître in 1771), the ormolu mounts were supplied by specialist bronziers, including Turchin, Ravrio and the doreur Trufot. It is, therefore, not surprising that some of the same mounts feature on commodes by both Mathieu Criaerd and the marchand-ébéniste Adrien-Faizelot Delorme (ibid., pp.72-3 and 117).
The prototype for the distinctive encadrement treatment of the ormolu mounts is derived from the oeuvre of the ébéniste Mathieu Criaerd, who supplied a number of masterpieces to the Garde-Meuble Royal through the famous marchand-mercier, Thomas-Joachim Hébert. Criaerd's best-known lacquered commode is the one executed in blue and white vernis and mounted in silvered bronze, which Hébert delivered in 1742 for the bedroom of Louis XV's mistress, Madame de Mailly, at the château of Choisy, now at the Louvre (Exhibition Catalogue, 'Nouvelles acquisitions du département des Objets d'art 1990-1994', Musée du Louvre 1995, No. 47; Alcouffe, No. 43). These same basic mounts also feature on the commode by Criaerd, veneered with kingwood and satinwood, which was delivered by Hébert to the Dauphin at Versailles in 1748 (D. Meyer, Le Mobilier de Versailles, Vol. I, Dijon 2002, No. 11).