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Lot Essay
Roger van der Cruse, known as Lacroix, maître in 1755.
Baron Lionel de Rothschild (1808-1879) was one of the greatest collectors of his generation and between 1860 and 1868 rebuilt his house at 148 Piccadilly, next door to the Duke of Wellington at Apsley House, in the style of an Italian palazzo. Baron Lionel had begun collecting pictures in the 1830s, though most of the French furniture and porcelain, enamels, bronzes and other works of art were purchased in the 1850s specifically to furnish 148 Piccadilly. The house remained unaltered until it was inherited from his grandmother by the Hon. Victor Rothschild in 1935 and the contents were sold off in a four day sale on the premises two years later. In 1959 the house was demolished to widen the southern end of Park Lane.
The parquetry secretaire is listed in various inventories of 148 Piccadilly, including one drawn up in the late 19th century, preserved in the Rothschild archives, London, and is shown in situ in Lady Rothschild's Sitting Room in an early 20th century photograph.
This elegant secretaire à encoignure epitomises the ingenuity of Parisian ébénisterie in the latter part of the 18th Century and particularly the oeuvre of Lacroix, who had specialised in the production of small, costly items of furniture, often embellished with intricate marquetry and sophisticated mechanical devices. On numerous occasions he collaborated with the celebrated marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier, who supplied precious materials such as Sèvres porcelain and oriental lacquer to be incorporated in these pieces and a closely related secretaire with a painted Sèvres porcelain plaque to the fall-front is at Waddesdon Mannor (ill. (Geoffrey de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild collection at Waddesdon Manor, Furniture, Clocks and Gilt Bronze, Fribourg 1974, pp. 337-341, cat 67).
Baron Lionel de Rothschild (1808-1879) was one of the greatest collectors of his generation and between 1860 and 1868 rebuilt his house at 148 Piccadilly, next door to the Duke of Wellington at Apsley House, in the style of an Italian palazzo. Baron Lionel had begun collecting pictures in the 1830s, though most of the French furniture and porcelain, enamels, bronzes and other works of art were purchased in the 1850s specifically to furnish 148 Piccadilly. The house remained unaltered until it was inherited from his grandmother by the Hon. Victor Rothschild in 1935 and the contents were sold off in a four day sale on the premises two years later. In 1959 the house was demolished to widen the southern end of Park Lane.
The parquetry secretaire is listed in various inventories of 148 Piccadilly, including one drawn up in the late 19th century, preserved in the Rothschild archives, London, and is shown in situ in Lady Rothschild's Sitting Room in an early 20th century photograph.
This elegant secretaire à encoignure epitomises the ingenuity of Parisian ébénisterie in the latter part of the 18th Century and particularly the oeuvre of Lacroix, who had specialised in the production of small, costly items of furniture, often embellished with intricate marquetry and sophisticated mechanical devices. On numerous occasions he collaborated with the celebrated marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier, who supplied precious materials such as Sèvres porcelain and oriental lacquer to be incorporated in these pieces and a closely related secretaire with a painted Sèvres porcelain plaque to the fall-front is at Waddesdon Mannor (ill. (Geoffrey de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild collection at Waddesdon Manor, Furniture, Clocks and Gilt Bronze, Fribourg 1974, pp. 337-341, cat 67).