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Lot Essay
André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732), ébéniste, ciseleur, doreur et sculpteur du Roi in 1672.
This desk is one of a sizeable body of bureaux plats that can with confidence be attributed to the greatest ébéniste of the late 17th early 18th Century, André-Charles Boulle. Among the well-known series of drawings of furniture attributed to Boulle at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris there are two designs of writing tables, one of which is closely related to the present bureau. The curved legs headed by satyr's masks and the central mount of a grinning mask occur on this drawing as well as the general outline with rectangular top and slightly breakfront central drawer. (A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes français de Louis XIV à la Révolution, Paris, 1989, Fig. 36).
In 1720, a fire destroyed part of Boulle's workshop, after which an inventory was made up of its contents that in large part had perished. It is headed by the furniture belonging to the Duc de Bourbon that was saved; the first item is a bureau of six feet long. Among the destroyed furniture there were another five bureaux, decorated with marquetry of brass and tortoiseshell and between five and six feet long, as well as two examples veneered with wood 'de couleur' and a further twelve bureaux of six feet in various states of completion (Read, Richard, Lacordaire and Montaiglon, 'Pierre et Charles-André Boulle ébénistes de Louis XIII et Louis XIV', Archives de l'Art Français (1855-56), p. 336). Clearly, bureaux plats were produced in considerable quantities in Boulle's workshop. Marquetry of brass and tortoiseshell or ebony, on the present desk executed in contre-partie with the dark designs outlined on the pale brass ground, was of the course one of the main specialities of Boulle who gave his name to this technique.
The mounts on this desk all form part of Boulle's répertoire and several may be recognized on the furniture designs by him that were published by Jean Mariette in a series of eight engravings (J.-P. Samoyault, André-Charles Boulle et sa famille, Genève, 1979, figs. 6-13). The grinning masks on the central drawer fronts probably represent the laughing philosopher, Democrites. On some comparable desks, it is paired with a mask of the weeping philosopher, Heraclites (see for instance P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Furniture, London, 1996, no. 158 (F427)). Models for masques d'Héraclite et de Démocrite were listed in the inventory of Boulle's possessions made up after his death in 1732 (Samoyault, op. Cit., p. 138, no. 21).
This desk is one of a sizeable body of bureaux plats that can with confidence be attributed to the greatest ébéniste of the late 17th early 18th Century, André-Charles Boulle. Among the well-known series of drawings of furniture attributed to Boulle at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris there are two designs of writing tables, one of which is closely related to the present bureau. The curved legs headed by satyr's masks and the central mount of a grinning mask occur on this drawing as well as the general outline with rectangular top and slightly breakfront central drawer. (A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes français de Louis XIV à la Révolution, Paris, 1989, Fig. 36).
In 1720, a fire destroyed part of Boulle's workshop, after which an inventory was made up of its contents that in large part had perished. It is headed by the furniture belonging to the Duc de Bourbon that was saved; the first item is a bureau of six feet long. Among the destroyed furniture there were another five bureaux, decorated with marquetry of brass and tortoiseshell and between five and six feet long, as well as two examples veneered with wood 'de couleur' and a further twelve bureaux of six feet in various states of completion (Read, Richard, Lacordaire and Montaiglon, 'Pierre et Charles-André Boulle ébénistes de Louis XIII et Louis XIV', Archives de l'Art Français (1855-56), p. 336). Clearly, bureaux plats were produced in considerable quantities in Boulle's workshop. Marquetry of brass and tortoiseshell or ebony, on the present desk executed in contre-partie with the dark designs outlined on the pale brass ground, was of the course one of the main specialities of Boulle who gave his name to this technique.
The mounts on this desk all form part of Boulle's répertoire and several may be recognized on the furniture designs by him that were published by Jean Mariette in a series of eight engravings (J.-P. Samoyault, André-Charles Boulle et sa famille, Genève, 1979, figs. 6-13). The grinning masks on the central drawer fronts probably represent the laughing philosopher, Democrites. On some comparable desks, it is paired with a mask of the weeping philosopher, Heraclites (see for instance P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Furniture, London, 1996, no. 158 (F427)). Models for masques d'Héraclite et de Démocrite were listed in the inventory of Boulle's possessions made up after his death in 1732 (Samoyault, op. Cit., p. 138, no. 21).