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Lot Essay
Mathieu Guillaume Cramer, maître in 1771.
This impressive commode, with its complex parquetry pattern of interlocking geometric shapes and Mercury-mask apron mounts, is virtually identical to an example signed by Cramer, formerly in the collections of Ogden Mills and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, which was sold Christie's, New York, 21 October 1997, lot 214 $135,000 exc. premium). Other examples of this distinguished model include one at the Musée Nissim de Camondo, Paris, another in the Anthony de Rothschild collection, Ascot House, Buckinghamshire, and a pair with the unusual feature of marquetry tops, previously in the collections of Lady Glenconner and Andrew Mellon, sold Christie's, New York, 5 November 1986, lot 202.
Cramer came from the same region of Germany as Jean-François Oeben, and his à la Grecque style of parquetry owes an obvious debt to his famous confrère.
MENTMORE TOWERS
This commode was last sold as part of the legendary Mentmore sale of 1977. Mentmore Towers was one of the great Rothschild buildings in England, created for Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild by Joseph Paxton in 1850, in a grandiloquent style reminiscent of the celebrated Elizabethan prodigy houses of the 16th century such as Hardwick Hall and Woolaton Hall. The sale typified all the grandeur of the goût Rothschild, with treasures ranging from a chimney piece reputedly from Rubens's house in Antwerp, to throne chairs from the Palazzo Ducale in Venice and a magnificent collection of French furniture.
This impressive commode, with its complex parquetry pattern of interlocking geometric shapes and Mercury-mask apron mounts, is virtually identical to an example signed by Cramer, formerly in the collections of Ogden Mills and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, which was sold Christie's, New York, 21 October 1997, lot 214 $135,000 exc. premium). Other examples of this distinguished model include one at the Musée Nissim de Camondo, Paris, another in the Anthony de Rothschild collection, Ascot House, Buckinghamshire, and a pair with the unusual feature of marquetry tops, previously in the collections of Lady Glenconner and Andrew Mellon, sold Christie's, New York, 5 November 1986, lot 202.
Cramer came from the same region of Germany as Jean-François Oeben, and his à la Grecque style of parquetry owes an obvious debt to his famous confrère.
MENTMORE TOWERS
This commode was last sold as part of the legendary Mentmore sale of 1977. Mentmore Towers was one of the great Rothschild buildings in England, created for Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild by Joseph Paxton in 1850, in a grandiloquent style reminiscent of the celebrated Elizabethan prodigy houses of the 16th century such as Hardwick Hall and Woolaton Hall. The sale typified all the grandeur of the goût Rothschild, with treasures ranging from a chimney piece reputedly from Rubens's house in Antwerp, to throne chairs from the Palazzo Ducale in Venice and a magnificent collection of French furniture.