拍品专文
PIERRE ROUSSEL
Pierre Roussel I (1723-1782) received his maîtrise in 1745 and is recorded to have supplied furniture for the Palais-Bourbon and the château de Chantilly.
With its quatrefoil-inset cube parquetry, sunflower and rosette-filled entrelacs and idiosyncratic acanthus-wrapped female mask to the apron, this transitional commode is characteristic of the oeuvre of the ébéniste Pierre Roussel. Closely-related transitional commodes by Roussel include one formerly in the Wildenstein Collection, sold at Christie's, London, 14-15 December 2005, lot 160 (£50,400 with premium), a further example sold at Christie's, London, 13 June 2002, lot 10 (£116,650 with premium), and another sold more recently at Christie's, London, 13 September 2007, lot 1293.
THE PROVENANCE
Alfred Montgomery (1814-1896), second son of Sir Henry Conyngham Montgomery, 1st Bt., married, in 1842, Fanny Charlotte, eldest daughter of George Wyndham, 1st Lord Leconfield. A commissioner of the Inland Revenue, he was a social figure of some importance. Wilfrid Scawen Blunt characterised him as 'quite the last of the old d'Orsay set in London'. A friend of Montgomery, the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, described him as 'a man of fashion, dining out to the end'. His elder daughter, Edith, married George Finch, of Burley on the Hill, Rutland, while her sister Sibyl married John, 9th Marquess of Queensberry. Their father's collection was sold posthumously at Robinson & Fisher's in 1896.
Pierre Roussel I (1723-1782) received his maîtrise in 1745 and is recorded to have supplied furniture for the Palais-Bourbon and the château de Chantilly.
With its quatrefoil-inset cube parquetry, sunflower and rosette-filled entrelacs and idiosyncratic acanthus-wrapped female mask to the apron, this transitional commode is characteristic of the oeuvre of the ébéniste Pierre Roussel. Closely-related transitional commodes by Roussel include one formerly in the Wildenstein Collection, sold at Christie's, London, 14-15 December 2005, lot 160 (£50,400 with premium), a further example sold at Christie's, London, 13 June 2002, lot 10 (£116,650 with premium), and another sold more recently at Christie's, London, 13 September 2007, lot 1293.
THE PROVENANCE
Alfred Montgomery (1814-1896), second son of Sir Henry Conyngham Montgomery, 1st Bt., married, in 1842, Fanny Charlotte, eldest daughter of George Wyndham, 1st Lord Leconfield. A commissioner of the Inland Revenue, he was a social figure of some importance. Wilfrid Scawen Blunt characterised him as 'quite the last of the old d'Orsay set in London'. A friend of Montgomery, the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, described him as 'a man of fashion, dining out to the end'. His elder daughter, Edith, married George Finch, of Burley on the Hill, Rutland, while her sister Sibyl married John, 9th Marquess of Queensberry. Their father's collection was sold posthumously at Robinson & Fisher's in 1896.