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拍品專文
This superb commode, which incorporates the drawers and sides of a 17th century Japanese cabinet lacquer within a frame of elegant brass-inlaid ebony and satinwood and amaranth fillets, is conceived in the 18th century tradition of the Parisian marchands-merciers such as Dominique Daguerre, who had perfected the art of marrying the exoticism of oriental lacquer with European ébénisterie, in collaboration with cabinet-makers such as Adam Weisweiler and Martin Carlin.
Daguerre supplied many of the greatest collections assembled by the English aristocracy in the 1780's and 1790's, notably the Prince Regent, later George IV, whose passion for lacquer is well-recorded. The flow of furniture to England stopped abruptly with the French Revolution, but the Peace of Amiens in 1803 briefly opened the channels again and the aristocracy flocked to Paris, including William Beckford, who assembled one of the greatest collections of lacquer of all time.
Beckford commisioned at this time a number of cabinets which were made under the direction of the silversmith Henri Auguste, incorporating precious Japanese lacquers from Beckford's own collection and which featured similar frames of contrasting pale and dark woods such as satinwood and amaranth (see P. Hewat-Jaboor and B. Mcleod eds., William Beckford, 1760-1844 An Eye for the Magnificent, New York, 2002, p. 216, and A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes Français de Louis XIV à la Révolution, Paris, 1989, p. 42).
It is also interesting to note a set of four Japanese lacquer cabinets in the British Royal Collection, which were converted into commodes in the early 19th century with the addition of ormolu lion's paw feet and a white marble top, originally supplied to the Prince Regent for Brighton Pavilion, and now in Buckingham Palace (see G. de Bellaigue et al., Buckingham Palace, New York, 1968, p. 171).
The understated austerity of this commode also relates it to the oeuvre of the ébéniste Bernard Molitor, one of the few cabinet-makers to bridge the gap successfully between the Louis XVI and Empire periods. A pair of related commodes by Molitor with ebony surrounds and incorporating the interior drawers of a Japanese lacquer cabinet in a very similar manner, but with richer exteriors, one now in the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, one in a private collection, are illustrated in U. Leben, Molitor Ebéniste from the Ancien Régime to the Bourbon Restoration, London, 1992, p. 182, cats. 28 a and b.
Daguerre supplied many of the greatest collections assembled by the English aristocracy in the 1780's and 1790's, notably the Prince Regent, later George IV, whose passion for lacquer is well-recorded. The flow of furniture to England stopped abruptly with the French Revolution, but the Peace of Amiens in 1803 briefly opened the channels again and the aristocracy flocked to Paris, including William Beckford, who assembled one of the greatest collections of lacquer of all time.
Beckford commisioned at this time a number of cabinets which were made under the direction of the silversmith Henri Auguste, incorporating precious Japanese lacquers from Beckford's own collection and which featured similar frames of contrasting pale and dark woods such as satinwood and amaranth (see P. Hewat-Jaboor and B. Mcleod eds., William Beckford, 1760-1844 An Eye for the Magnificent, New York, 2002, p. 216, and A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes Français de Louis XIV à la Révolution, Paris, 1989, p. 42).
It is also interesting to note a set of four Japanese lacquer cabinets in the British Royal Collection, which were converted into commodes in the early 19th century with the addition of ormolu lion's paw feet and a white marble top, originally supplied to the Prince Regent for Brighton Pavilion, and now in Buckingham Palace (see G. de Bellaigue et al., Buckingham Palace, New York, 1968, p. 171).
The understated austerity of this commode also relates it to the oeuvre of the ébéniste Bernard Molitor, one of the few cabinet-makers to bridge the gap successfully between the Louis XVI and Empire periods. A pair of related commodes by Molitor with ebony surrounds and incorporating the interior drawers of a Japanese lacquer cabinet in a very similar manner, but with richer exteriors, one now in the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, one in a private collection, are illustrated in U. Leben, Molitor Ebéniste from the Ancien Régime to the Bourbon Restoration, London, 1992, p. 182, cats. 28 a and b.