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Lot Essay
Philipe-Claude Montigny, maître in 1766.
With its 'Etruscan' ebony veneer, beautifully flowered entrelac frieze and tapering 'term' legs headed with laurel swags, this bureau plat reflects the goût grec style introduced in the mid-1750's by the architect Louis-Joseph Le Lorrain. Le Lorrain's goût grec style was first realized in the designs for the celebrated suite of furniture supplied for the Parisian hôtel of the amateur Ange-Laurent Lalive de Jully circa 1757, which included the celebrated bureau plat and cartonnier now in the Musée Condé at Chantilly, as well as two marble-topped center tables (including lot 111 in this sale) and an extraordinary cabinet designed to hold his shell collection, later separated into four cabinets, including that sold by the Marquess of Cholmondeley, Works of Art from Houghton, Christie's London, 8 December 1994, lot 80.
This superb jewel-like bureau plat of unusually small scale belongs to a select group of bureaux by Montigny with the same richly flowered entrelac frieze comprising:
-one in the collection of the Dukes of Bedford at Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire, acompanied by a cartonnier (illustrated in A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes Français de Louis XIV à la Revolution, Paris, 1989, p. 304 and also illustrated here)
-one formerly in the collection of the duchesse de Mouchy, sold at Sotheby's Monaco, 18 June 1999, lot 120 (FF3,532,500)
-one sold from the collection of M. Norton, Christie’s, New York, 30 April 1986, lot 204 ($352,000).
Other bureaux à la grecque of the same architectural form but more sober in ornament include one sold by Rory Cameron, Esq., from the Villa Fiorentina, Cap Ferrat, Sotheby's, Monaco, 17 June 1988, lot 741 ($425,000), stamped by both Montigny and René Dubois; one not signed but attributed to Montigny and with a cartonnier, sold from the celebrated collection of the couturier Jacques Doucet, Paris, 8 June 1927, lot 327; and a further example by Montigny sold from a European collection Christie's, Paris, 15 September 2016, lot 51 (€517,500).
Montigny was the son of a cabinet-maker, and started his career in his father’s workshop in the Cour de la Juiverie near the Bastille. He is also known to have collaborated frequently with his cousin René Dubois (and was even a witness at his wedding in 1772), which explains the presence of both of their stamps on a number of pieces, including examples in the Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor and the Wallace Collection, London. He particularly specialized in the restoration and remodeling of Boulle furniture, whose bold combinations of ebony and ormolu in concert with richly sculptural mounts were such an important influence on the goût grec style of the 1760s.
THE PROVENANCE
This jewel-like bureau plat was loaned to an exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 1955 by Françoise de Kerjégu, Marquise de la Ferronays, whose husband Henri de la Ferronays, came from a distinguished military and political family. Françoise de Kerjégu was the half-sister of two of the most celebrated collectors of the first half of the 20th century, Marie-Julie-Pamphile-Berthe de Béhague, marquise de Ganay (1868-1940), thought to have been the previous owner of the superb Joseph lacquer commode in this sale (lot 106), and Martine-Marie-Pol de Béhague, comtesse de Béarn (1869-1939).
With its 'Etruscan' ebony veneer, beautifully flowered entrelac frieze and tapering 'term' legs headed with laurel swags, this bureau plat reflects the goût grec style introduced in the mid-1750's by the architect Louis-Joseph Le Lorrain. Le Lorrain's goût grec style was first realized in the designs for the celebrated suite of furniture supplied for the Parisian hôtel of the amateur Ange-Laurent Lalive de Jully circa 1757, which included the celebrated bureau plat and cartonnier now in the Musée Condé at Chantilly, as well as two marble-topped center tables (including lot 111 in this sale) and an extraordinary cabinet designed to hold his shell collection, later separated into four cabinets, including that sold by the Marquess of Cholmondeley, Works of Art from Houghton, Christie's London, 8 December 1994, lot 80.
This superb jewel-like bureau plat of unusually small scale belongs to a select group of bureaux by Montigny with the same richly flowered entrelac frieze comprising:
-one in the collection of the Dukes of Bedford at Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire, acompanied by a cartonnier (illustrated in A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes Français de Louis XIV à la Revolution, Paris, 1989, p. 304 and also illustrated here)
-one formerly in the collection of the duchesse de Mouchy, sold at Sotheby's Monaco, 18 June 1999, lot 120 (FF3,532,500)
-one sold from the collection of M. Norton, Christie’s, New York, 30 April 1986, lot 204 ($352,000).
Other bureaux à la grecque of the same architectural form but more sober in ornament include one sold by Rory Cameron, Esq., from the Villa Fiorentina, Cap Ferrat, Sotheby's, Monaco, 17 June 1988, lot 741 ($425,000), stamped by both Montigny and René Dubois; one not signed but attributed to Montigny and with a cartonnier, sold from the celebrated collection of the couturier Jacques Doucet, Paris, 8 June 1927, lot 327; and a further example by Montigny sold from a European collection Christie's, Paris, 15 September 2016, lot 51 (€517,500).
Montigny was the son of a cabinet-maker, and started his career in his father’s workshop in the Cour de la Juiverie near the Bastille. He is also known to have collaborated frequently with his cousin René Dubois (and was even a witness at his wedding in 1772), which explains the presence of both of their stamps on a number of pieces, including examples in the Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor and the Wallace Collection, London. He particularly specialized in the restoration and remodeling of Boulle furniture, whose bold combinations of ebony and ormolu in concert with richly sculptural mounts were such an important influence on the goût grec style of the 1760s.
THE PROVENANCE
This jewel-like bureau plat was loaned to an exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 1955 by Françoise de Kerjégu, Marquise de la Ferronays, whose husband Henri de la Ferronays, came from a distinguished military and political family. Françoise de Kerjégu was the half-sister of two of the most celebrated collectors of the first half of the 20th century, Marie-Julie-Pamphile-Berthe de Béhague, marquise de Ganay (1868-1940), thought to have been the previous owner of the superb Joseph lacquer commode in this sale (lot 106), and Martine-Marie-Pol de Béhague, comtesse de Béarn (1869-1939).