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Lot Essay
Charles Cressent, 1685-1768, marchand-ébéniste and sculpteur.
Jean Gillet, maître in 1737.
CHARLES CRESSENT
Charles Cressent is indisputably the most representative craftsman of the Régence period, when fashion started to turn to furniture finished with relatively simple wood veneers, but fitted with ormolu mounts of increasingly sculptural quality and splendour. In this arena Cressent stood alone, his early training as a sculptor being more than evident in the originality and quality of the mounts which he produced. He became master sculptor in 1719 and a member of the Academy of Saint-Luc. He is recorded as both sculpteur and ébéniste to the duc d'Orléans, and he was constantly in difficulties with the guild of fondeurs and doreurs because, in contravention of the guild rules, he chased and gilded bronzes in his own workshop. In many instances he had even supplied models which he had created himself to the casters of his bronzes. His defence against this was that it enabled him to supervise the quality of the work and to prevent unauthorized copies being made; it has to be said that his defiance of the guild regulations has left a legacy of ormolu mounts of unparalleled distinction. This may also explain why most of the mounts of both these commodes appear to be contemporary after-casts of a third set of mounts - and were almost certainly produced in Cressent's atelier.
COMMODES A DOUBLES CROSSES EN S ET CHUTES DE FLEURS
Cressent designed a number of very distinctive commodes which have now been been identified in the catalogue raisonné compiled by Alexandre Pradère. This places the present pair in a group of only ten examples classified as 'Les commodes à doubles crosses en S et chutes de fleurs', including one supplied to Jean-Baptiste de Machault d'Arnouville (1701-1794; A. Pradère, loc. cit., pp. 283-5). Of this group, Pradère concludes that the earliest model is those with a chute mosaique, as feature on this pair, and can be dated to circa 1740. Of this small group, the present pair have the richest mounts to the apron.
Pradère has suggested that the presence of Jean Gillet's stamp on one of these commodes could imply a collaboration between Gillet and Cressent. Indeed, a pair of encoignures with Brèche d'Alep tops, the same parquetry and related mounts, which he attributes to Cressent, are also stamped by Gillet (sold Christie's, London, 29 July 1954, lot 87; and most recently at Palais Galliera, Paris, 11 March 1975, lot 159; ibid; Kjellberg, loc. cit., 1998, ill.).
Pradère has also suggested the possibility that the Frankfurt-Am-Main wax seal to the reverse of these commodes could imply a Goldschmidt-Rothschild provenance for this pair. Certainly the Rothschild's predilection for bringing together almost identical pairs is borne out both by the De Loose commodes from Marly (sold Christie's, New York, 26 October 2001, lot 280), as well as by the matched pair of commodes by Cressent, one being a faithful copy of the other with mounts transposed, in the James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor (G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, London, 1974, pp. 207-217). A commode of this model, though with slightly larger chutes and lion's paw sabots, was previously in the collection of Rudolph von Goldschmidt-Rothschild in Königstein, and it is not inconceivable that he may have had a second similar Cressent commode (A. Feulner, 'Französische Möbel in Deutschland', Pantheon, September 1929, p. 52).
Jean Gillet, maître in 1737.
CHARLES CRESSENT
Charles Cressent is indisputably the most representative craftsman of the Régence period, when fashion started to turn to furniture finished with relatively simple wood veneers, but fitted with ormolu mounts of increasingly sculptural quality and splendour. In this arena Cressent stood alone, his early training as a sculptor being more than evident in the originality and quality of the mounts which he produced. He became master sculptor in 1719 and a member of the Academy of Saint-Luc. He is recorded as both sculpteur and ébéniste to the duc d'Orléans, and he was constantly in difficulties with the guild of fondeurs and doreurs because, in contravention of the guild rules, he chased and gilded bronzes in his own workshop. In many instances he had even supplied models which he had created himself to the casters of his bronzes. His defence against this was that it enabled him to supervise the quality of the work and to prevent unauthorized copies being made; it has to be said that his defiance of the guild regulations has left a legacy of ormolu mounts of unparalleled distinction. This may also explain why most of the mounts of both these commodes appear to be contemporary after-casts of a third set of mounts - and were almost certainly produced in Cressent's atelier.
COMMODES A DOUBLES CROSSES EN S ET CHUTES DE FLEURS
Cressent designed a number of very distinctive commodes which have now been been identified in the catalogue raisonné compiled by Alexandre Pradère. This places the present pair in a group of only ten examples classified as 'Les commodes à doubles crosses en S et chutes de fleurs', including one supplied to Jean-Baptiste de Machault d'Arnouville (1701-1794; A. Pradère, loc. cit., pp. 283-5). Of this group, Pradère concludes that the earliest model is those with a chute mosaique, as feature on this pair, and can be dated to circa 1740. Of this small group, the present pair have the richest mounts to the apron.
Pradère has suggested that the presence of Jean Gillet's stamp on one of these commodes could imply a collaboration between Gillet and Cressent. Indeed, a pair of encoignures with Brèche d'Alep tops, the same parquetry and related mounts, which he attributes to Cressent, are also stamped by Gillet (sold Christie's, London, 29 July 1954, lot 87; and most recently at Palais Galliera, Paris, 11 March 1975, lot 159; ibid; Kjellberg, loc. cit., 1998, ill.).
Pradère has also suggested the possibility that the Frankfurt-Am-Main wax seal to the reverse of these commodes could imply a Goldschmidt-Rothschild provenance for this pair. Certainly the Rothschild's predilection for bringing together almost identical pairs is borne out both by the De Loose commodes from Marly (sold Christie's, New York, 26 October 2001, lot 280), as well as by the matched pair of commodes by Cressent, one being a faithful copy of the other with mounts transposed, in the James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor (G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, London, 1974, pp. 207-217). A commode of this model, though with slightly larger chutes and lion's paw sabots, was previously in the collection of Rudolph von Goldschmidt-Rothschild in Königstein, and it is not inconceivable that he may have had a second similar Cressent commode (A. Feulner, 'Französische Möbel in Deutschland', Pantheon, September 1929, p. 52).