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Lot Essay
Jacques Dubois, maitre in 1742.
Embellished with costly Japanese lacquer, this jewel like bureau is a superb example of the most precious and luxurious Japanese lacquer mounted furniture executed in Paris in the mid-18th Century. A fashion developed by the innovative Parisian dealers also active as designers known as marchand-merciers, the earliest pieces of furniture decorated in this manner are those supplied in the early 1730s to the Court of Karl-Albrecht, Elector of Bavaria in Munich (B. Langer, ‘Die Moebel der Reisidenz Munchen’, Munich, 1995, nos. 15-20). One of the most prominent marchand-mercier active in the mid-18th Century was Lazare Duvaux, whose Livre-Journal recording sales between 1749 and 1757, lists the celebrated Japanese lacquer-mounted bureaux by Bernard II Van Risen Burgh (BVRB) sold to the King in December 1750 and to Mme de Pompadour in December 1756. The latter was sold from the collection of M. and Mme Riahi, Christie’s London, 6 December 2012, lot 20.
The present bureau is embellished with dense and richly gilt panels of 17th Century Japanese lacquer depicting landscapes with riverbanks and birds. It is stamped by the ébéniste Jacques Dubois, who, just like BVRB, specialised in luxurious furniture mounted with Oriental lacquer. Whilst his career is thinly documented he is known to have initially worked with his half-brother Noel Gerard from the late 1720s, the latter acting as witness to his marriage in Paris in 1730. Established in the rue de Charenton, Dubois enjoyed the privileges of an ouvrier libre and was thus unfettered by the strict guild regulations endured by his fellow ébéniste. He is known to have collaborated with the marchand-merciers Bertin and Pierre I Migeon (A. Pradere, French Furniture Makers, Paris, 1989, p. 171)
As the Inventory taken following his death in 1763 clearly testifies, his workshop included a small group of costly pieces in Chinese or Japanese lacquer, listing 'un bureau en lac de Chine' and 'un petite secrétaire en lac de japon' each valued at '200 L'. The inventory also shows that Dubois maintained an extensive stock of gilt-bronze mounts - 432 livres pesant de modèles de bronze, 1 080 L –. One of the mounts characteristic for Dubois’ oeuvre are the leaf chutes trailing the legs, which appear on the present bureau but also on a bureau from the collections of the Barons Nathaniel and Albert von Rothschild, sold Christie’s London, 8 July 1999, lot 204. They also appear on both the related bureau, stamped with the C couronné poinçon, illustrated in A. Pradere, ‘op. cit.’ p. 170, fig. 148, as well as on the marquetry bureau, sold from the Alexander Collection, Christie's New York, 30 April 1999, lot 140. The closest comparison is perhaps the bureau from the fabled Paul Dutasta collection, sold Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 3-4 June 1926, lot 157. This example, stamped by Dubois, also has a red japanned interior like the present bureau, creating a striking contrast with the Japanese lacquer exterior.
Embellished with costly Japanese lacquer, this jewel like bureau is a superb example of the most precious and luxurious Japanese lacquer mounted furniture executed in Paris in the mid-18th Century. A fashion developed by the innovative Parisian dealers also active as designers known as marchand-merciers, the earliest pieces of furniture decorated in this manner are those supplied in the early 1730s to the Court of Karl-Albrecht, Elector of Bavaria in Munich (B. Langer, ‘Die Moebel der Reisidenz Munchen’, Munich, 1995, nos. 15-20). One of the most prominent marchand-mercier active in the mid-18th Century was Lazare Duvaux, whose Livre-Journal recording sales between 1749 and 1757, lists the celebrated Japanese lacquer-mounted bureaux by Bernard II Van Risen Burgh (BVRB) sold to the King in December 1750 and to Mme de Pompadour in December 1756. The latter was sold from the collection of M. and Mme Riahi, Christie’s London, 6 December 2012, lot 20.
The present bureau is embellished with dense and richly gilt panels of 17th Century Japanese lacquer depicting landscapes with riverbanks and birds. It is stamped by the ébéniste Jacques Dubois, who, just like BVRB, specialised in luxurious furniture mounted with Oriental lacquer. Whilst his career is thinly documented he is known to have initially worked with his half-brother Noel Gerard from the late 1720s, the latter acting as witness to his marriage in Paris in 1730. Established in the rue de Charenton, Dubois enjoyed the privileges of an ouvrier libre and was thus unfettered by the strict guild regulations endured by his fellow ébéniste. He is known to have collaborated with the marchand-merciers Bertin and Pierre I Migeon (A. Pradere, French Furniture Makers, Paris, 1989, p. 171)
As the Inventory taken following his death in 1763 clearly testifies, his workshop included a small group of costly pieces in Chinese or Japanese lacquer, listing 'un bureau en lac de Chine' and 'un petite secrétaire en lac de japon' each valued at '200 L'. The inventory also shows that Dubois maintained an extensive stock of gilt-bronze mounts - 432 livres pesant de modèles de bronze, 1 080 L –. One of the mounts characteristic for Dubois’ oeuvre are the leaf chutes trailing the legs, which appear on the present bureau but also on a bureau from the collections of the Barons Nathaniel and Albert von Rothschild, sold Christie’s London, 8 July 1999, lot 204. They also appear on both the related bureau, stamped with the C couronné poinçon, illustrated in A. Pradere, ‘op. cit.’ p. 170, fig. 148, as well as on the marquetry bureau, sold from the Alexander Collection, Christie's New York, 30 April 1999, lot 140. The closest comparison is perhaps the bureau from the fabled Paul Dutasta collection, sold Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 3-4 June 1926, lot 157. This example, stamped by Dubois, also has a red japanned interior like the present bureau, creating a striking contrast with the Japanese lacquer exterior.