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A LOUIS XVI ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD, AMARANTH, SATINE, HAREWOOD AND PARQUETRY BUREAU PLAT

BY PIERRE ROUSSEL, THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY, EMBELLISHED PROBABLY IN ENGLAND IN THE EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Details

A LOUIS XVI ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD, AMARANTH, SATINE, HAREWOOD AND PARQUETRY BUREAU PLAT
BY PIERRE ROUSSEL, THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY, EMBELLISHED PROBABLY IN ENGLAND IN THE EARLY 19TH CENTURY
Of rectangular shape, the top lined with green leather and banded by a green-stained border, with ormolu moulding above a frieze mounted with entrelac motif opening with a central long drawer flanked to each side by a smaller drawer, above two other drawers inlaid with rosette-filled stylised losenges, the sides and back inlaid conformingly, with fluted chutes surmounted by ionic capitals and on square tapering legs headed by a foliate tapering mount and ending in sabots, stamped three times 'P.ROUSSEL' and two times 'JME', the underside of one drawer with stamped inventory numbers, '18473/8' crossed, and '39908/8', the inside of the central drawer with pencil inscription '4 L23'/'3 R 50'/'2 L 20'/'Back 0', adapted, probably from a cylinder bureau and re-using marquetry probably by Jean-Henri Riesener
30¼ in. (76,5 cm.) high; 57½ in. (146 cm.) wide; 30½ in. (77 cm.) deep

Provenance

The Dukes of Leeds, Hornby Castle, Yorkshire, sold Christie's, London, 10 June 1920, lot 131.
Georges Blumenthal, sold Gallerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1 December 1932, lot 171.
Collection of Marjorie Merriweather Post.
Anonymous sale, Christie's, London, 9 June 1994, lot 112.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

Pierre Roussel, maître in 1745.

This bureau plat is designed in the Louis XVI 'antique' style and is embellished with an acanthus-enriched ribbon-guilloche and inlaid panels with flowered mosaic fret. The hermed feet are capped by Doric metopes and triglyphs, together with Ionic capitals festooned with laurels. A mount of this pattern features on an inlaid secrétaire stamped by Roussel and bought from his widow in 1789 (see: P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1989, p. 1741).

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