AFTER THE MODEL BY CHARLES CRESSENT, BY MAISON MILLET, PARIS, LATE 19TH CENTURY

This armoire is a faithful reproduction of one of a celebrated pair of armoires made by Charles Cressent (1685-1768) for the collector M. de Selle in circa 1740 and today in the Louvre (OA 10582 & 10583). The armoires were rare in Cressent’s oeuvre and are celebrated for their distinctive ormolu mounts of putto emblematic of Music and Astronomy, as on the present cabinet (the pair has mounts emblematic of Architecture and Painting and Sculpture). The Cressent armoires were in the 19th century owned by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (d. 1898), banker and builder of Waddesdon Manor, and thereafter by Boni de Castellane (d. 1932), the French nobleman and leading Belle Epoque tastemaker. It is not known when Millet had the opportunity to replicate the model, though it is probable that they were loaned to an exhibition or made available at public auction by one of their owners in the 19th century. That the Cressent armoires were sought after by such illustrious connoisseurs, and that Millet ordained to replicate them, is testament to the importance and splendour of the model.

Established by Théodore Millet in 1853, the Maison Millet operated until 1902 from premises at 11, rue Jacques-Coeur, Paris, before relocating to 23, boulevard Beaumarchais. Specialising in 'meubles et bronzes d'art, genre ancien et moderne', with an accent on the Louis XV and XVI styles, Millet won awards in Paris and London including a gold medal at the 1889 Pairs Exposition universelle, a Grand Prix in 1900 and three further diplomes d'honneur and four médailles d'or. In 1902 the firm was authorised by the director of the Palais de Versailles to replicate Marie-Antoinette's celebrated Grand cabinet à bijoux. An auction of the firm's inventory was held in 1906 and they finally ceased trading in 1918.