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Lot Essay
The revived fashion for ‘Boulle’ furniture in France gradually gained pace from the mid-18th century, reaching its height in the 1770s with the accession of Louis XVI. It was at this time that the practice amongst Parisian marchand-merciers, of adapting and embellishing existing pieces of Louis XIV ‘Boulle’ furniture to suit the present fashion (see preceding lot), or taking period furniture and completely rebuilding it in a contemporary form (as here) really began to gather pace. One of the greatest exponents of this practice was the renowned marchand-mercier Claude François Julliot (d. 1794), who was one of the earliest to commission the reworking of ‘Boulle’ furniture produced perhaps sixty or eighty years before. The fashion for rich, ‘antiquarian’ furniture of this kind quickly spread during the 1770s with many late 17th and early 18th century pieces of furniture being remodelled to reflect current taste as neoclassicism began to take hold.
The vogue in England for ‘Boulle’ furniture began slowly with a small number of pieces recorded as being imported as early as the 1750s, such as the scarlet tortoiseshell ‘Boulle’ bureau mazerin (un-mounted but with similarly replaced legs to the preceding lot), which was supplied by Thomas Chippendale to William Crichton Dalrymple, 5th Earl of Dumfries (d. 1768) for the drawing room at Dumfries House, Ayrshire in 1759. Interestingly Chippendale also employed apparently identical ram’s-mask angle mounts to those used on the preceding lot, on a marquetry commode he produced for Lord Harewood (d. 1795) (for Harewood House, Yorkshire in 1770-72); the mounts must have been acquired from France about the same time as that bureau was remodelled. In his early supply of the Dumfries bureau, Chippendale was blazing a trail for this type of furniture which would steadily grow for the remainder of the century (as and when the political situation would allow). However the demand in Britain did not reach its apogée until the turn of the nineteenth century when much ‘Boulle’ work was introduced to the interiors of Carlton House by the court architect Henry Holland and the émigré Parisian marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre under the patronage of the Prince of Wales, which would certainly have influenced the tastes of Lord Londonderry. His taste for ‘Boulle’ and that of subsequent generations of the Londonderry family, is not
only evident amongst this collection offered for sale but is illustrated by the impressive series of side cabinets shown in many of the surviving photographs of Londonderry House, and through the spectacular ‘Boulle’ marquetry library installed at Wynyard Park, County
Durham, by 3rd Marquess which remains in situ today.
The vogue in England for ‘Boulle’ furniture began slowly with a small number of pieces recorded as being imported as early as the 1750s, such as the scarlet tortoiseshell ‘Boulle’ bureau mazerin (un-mounted but with similarly replaced legs to the preceding lot), which was supplied by Thomas Chippendale to William Crichton Dalrymple, 5th Earl of Dumfries (d. 1768) for the drawing room at Dumfries House, Ayrshire in 1759. Interestingly Chippendale also employed apparently identical ram’s-mask angle mounts to those used on the preceding lot, on a marquetry commode he produced for Lord Harewood (d. 1795) (for Harewood House, Yorkshire in 1770-72); the mounts must have been acquired from France about the same time as that bureau was remodelled. In his early supply of the Dumfries bureau, Chippendale was blazing a trail for this type of furniture which would steadily grow for the remainder of the century (as and when the political situation would allow). However the demand in Britain did not reach its apogée until the turn of the nineteenth century when much ‘Boulle’ work was introduced to the interiors of Carlton House by the court architect Henry Holland and the émigré Parisian marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre under the patronage of the Prince of Wales, which would certainly have influenced the tastes of Lord Londonderry. His taste for ‘Boulle’ and that of subsequent generations of the Londonderry family, is not
only evident amongst this collection offered for sale but is illustrated by the impressive series of side cabinets shown in many of the surviving photographs of Londonderry House, and through the spectacular ‘Boulle’ marquetry library installed at Wynyard Park, County
Durham, by 3rd Marquess which remains in situ today.