.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Martin Carlin, maître in 1766.
This superb and richly-mounted commode is embellished with breakfront panels with ovals intricately-inlaid with foliate and arabesque motifs, characteristic for some of Carlin's most accomplished marquetry pieces of the late 1770s. The present commode has an opulent double façade, and was executed from a pair encoignures by Carlin,en suite with his celebrated commode and secretaire in the Huntington Collection, San Marino, California (R. Wark, French Decorative Arts in the Huntington Collection, San Marino, 1979, Figs 64-65).
This splendid suite of marquetry furniture is decorated with bold and finely-chased mounts of superior quality, which were almost certainly supplied by one of the marchand-merciers, for whom Carlin almost exclusively worked. His longstanding relationship with Simon-Philippe Poirier (d. 1785) is particularly noteworthy, and his finest masterpieces were mostly sold through A la Couronne d'Or, Poirier's fashionable business in the Rue St. Honoré.
The present commode's apron mount, with its lion mask and scrolling foliage, also features on various splendid pieces by Carlin now in The Louvre. These include Madame du Barry's celebrated porcelain-mounted commode of circa 1772 and a pair of lacquer-mounted encoignures of circa 1780, from Chateau de Bellevue, which are illustrated in D. Alcouffe et.al., Furniture Collections in the Louvre, vol. I, Dijon, 1993, no. 67, pp. 218-223, no. 78, pp. 246-247.
This superb and richly-mounted commode is embellished with breakfront panels with ovals intricately-inlaid with foliate and arabesque motifs, characteristic for some of Carlin's most accomplished marquetry pieces of the late 1770s. The present commode has an opulent double façade, and was executed from a pair encoignures by Carlin,en suite with his celebrated commode and secretaire in the Huntington Collection, San Marino, California (R. Wark, French Decorative Arts in the Huntington Collection, San Marino, 1979, Figs 64-65).
This splendid suite of marquetry furniture is decorated with bold and finely-chased mounts of superior quality, which were almost certainly supplied by one of the marchand-merciers, for whom Carlin almost exclusively worked. His longstanding relationship with Simon-Philippe Poirier (d. 1785) is particularly noteworthy, and his finest masterpieces were mostly sold through A la Couronne d'Or, Poirier's fashionable business in the Rue St. Honoré.
The present commode's apron mount, with its lion mask and scrolling foliage, also features on various splendid pieces by Carlin now in The Louvre. These include Madame du Barry's celebrated porcelain-mounted commode of circa 1772 and a pair of lacquer-mounted encoignures of circa 1780, from Chateau de Bellevue, which are illustrated in D. Alcouffe et.al., Furniture Collections in the Louvre, vol. I, Dijon, 1993, no. 67, pp. 218-223, no. 78, pp. 246-247.