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Lot Essay
Pierre Roussel, maître in 1745.
In 1928 this bureau plat was featured in the exhibition entitled Révolution Française held at one of the most prestigious cultural institutions of France; the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. Investigating various aspects of the French Revolution, the curators must have chosen to include the present desk, which was lent by the leading art gallery Arnold Seligmann & Co., as its distinct ribbon-tied fasces-form legs had strong ties with revolutionary iconography. Already used in the Louis XIV period alongside with various trophies of war, fasces were fully embraced as a decorative motif during the reign of Louis XV. One of their most notable uses is on the boiserie of the Café Militaire in Paris. Designed around 1762 by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux and now installed at the Musée Carnavalet, this interior is decorated with fasces-carved pilasters. An example of the use of this design element complete with axes during the last years of the ancien régime can be seen in a commode from 1788 by Guillaume Benneman, now in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Inv. n. 78.Da.361). A table with similar legs that may have been made for the Comte de Provence and now in the Assemblée Nationale is illustrated P. Verlet, et. al., French Cabinetmakers of the Eighteenth Century, New York, 1963, p. 312, fig. 1 and 3. The present bureau’s legs are closely related to the famous commode à vantaux by Benneman and Joseph Stöckel, who used arrows tied with ribbons in a fasces-like fashion to accentuate the corners of the piece delivered for Marie-Antoinette at the Château de Fontainebleau. The post-revolution regime had a particularly strong affinity for the fasces motif as it was the symbol of power and authority in ancient Rome, and used it extensively in various media from printed pamphlets to furniture. A somber post-revolution use of this design element is evident on a commode from circa 1795 and now in the Musée Carnavalet (Inv. n. MB202). Similarly to the present desk, on the Carnavalet example the fasces are ebonized and the ribbons are executed in ormolu.
In 1928 this bureau plat was featured in the exhibition entitled Révolution Française held at one of the most prestigious cultural institutions of France; the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. Investigating various aspects of the French Revolution, the curators must have chosen to include the present desk, which was lent by the leading art gallery Arnold Seligmann & Co., as its distinct ribbon-tied fasces-form legs had strong ties with revolutionary iconography. Already used in the Louis XIV period alongside with various trophies of war, fasces were fully embraced as a decorative motif during the reign of Louis XV. One of their most notable uses is on the boiserie of the Café Militaire in Paris. Designed around 1762 by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux and now installed at the Musée Carnavalet, this interior is decorated with fasces-carved pilasters. An example of the use of this design element complete with axes during the last years of the ancien régime can be seen in a commode from 1788 by Guillaume Benneman, now in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Inv. n. 78.Da.361). A table with similar legs that may have been made for the Comte de Provence and now in the Assemblée Nationale is illustrated P. Verlet, et. al., French Cabinetmakers of the Eighteenth Century, New York, 1963, p. 312, fig. 1 and 3. The present bureau’s legs are closely related to the famous commode à vantaux by Benneman and Joseph Stöckel, who used arrows tied with ribbons in a fasces-like fashion to accentuate the corners of the piece delivered for Marie-Antoinette at the Château de Fontainebleau. The post-revolution regime had a particularly strong affinity for the fasces motif as it was the symbol of power and authority in ancient Rome, and used it extensively in various media from printed pamphlets to furniture. A somber post-revolution use of this design element is evident on a commode from circa 1795 and now in the Musée Carnavalet (Inv. n. MB202). Similarly to the present desk, on the Carnavalet example the fasces are ebonized and the ribbons are executed in ormolu.