BY LEONARD BOUDIN, CIRCA 1760

Leonard Boudin, maître in 1761.

The top of this elegant and ingenious mechanical table is veneered with a marquetry composition derived from a Chinoiserie copperplate engraving by Gabriel Huquier (1695–1772) after Francois Boucher (1703–1770) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Inv. no. 57.559.45). It shows a terrace with an open pavilion and a low wall topped with two vases and a pot plant. At the centre stands a Chinese woman in a long robe with her arms folded leaning on the back of a chair while a man in a straw hat places his arm around her shoulder in an evident attempt at seduction. Surrounding this are panels with a fashionable background à mosaïque, with floral branches at either side.

A closely related mechanical table stamped by Boudin with a similar central Chinoiserie panel depicting a couple within a cartouche flanked by war trophies derived from designs by Gilles Demarteau l'aîné (1722-1776), from his series of engravings entitled Plusiers Trophées Dessinées et Gravées par Demarteau l'aîné, sold from the collection of Mrs. Charles Allen Jr., Sotheby's New York, 1 November 1997, lot 85. A further related example, of slightly smaller scale and with a European pastoral marquetry panel instead of the Chinoiserie scene on the present table, but featuring similar trellis parquetry and restrained goût grec bronze ornamentation, stamped by Pierre Roussel (1723-1782, maître-ébéniste in 1745), was formerly in the collection of Sidney J. Lamon (sold Christie's London, 29 November 1973, lot 95, and again, 2 December 1998, lot 150).

Clearly, at a time when avant-garde taste had turned towards severe goût grec and lighter Louis XVI furniture, there was still a large and eager market for this colourful, intricately decorated furniture in the late rococo style. In their combination of mechanical devices, pictorial marquetry in scrolled surrounds, cube marquetry and panels à mosaïque, these tables ultimately derive from examples of the late 1750s and early 1760s by Jean-François Oeben (1721-1763; see R. Stratmann-Döhler, Jean-François Oeben, Paris 2002, for numerous examples). The stamps found on the tables cited above demonstrate that a number of ébénistes continued to cater to this earlier taste.

As very similar marquetry occurs on pieces stamped by different ébénistes, it has been suggested that the pictorial panels may have been executed by specialist marqueteurs who supplied them to a number of workshops. It must be noted, however, that most of these tables display a unity of design and conception throughout; for instance, on the present piece, the trellis pattern on the side panels of the top is repeated on the sides, the scale being subtly enlarged. Obviously, the workshops where these pieces were produced were fully in command of every aspect of their manufacture.