CIRCA 1780-90, COMMISSIONED BY THE MARCHAND-MERCIER CLAUDE-FRANCOIS JULLIOT, AND ATTRIBUTED TO ADAM WEISWEILER, INCORPORATING LOUIS XIV MARQUETRY PANELS

Incorporating jewel-like arabesque marquetry from a Louis XIV table top, this bas d'armoire belongs to a celebrated group executed between circa 1775-1800 by the ébéniste Adam Weisweiler for the marchand-mercier Claude-François Julliot (d. 1784) and, subsequently, his son Philippe. These new forms reflected the taste for cabinet furniture in the 'antique' taste associated with André-Charles Boulle that would allow ample room for the hanging of the newly fashionable Dutch and Flemish cabinet pictures. In its overall form and the distinctive treatment of the marquetry, particularly of the sides, the present bas d'armoire can be confidently attributed to Adam Weisweiler. In particular, the distinctive treatment of the side panels, with their foliate spray spandrels enclosing an ebony panel, can be seen on the pair of cabinets stamped by Weisweiler in the Wallace Collection (F393-4), as well as on the larger example at Waddesdon (no.40), the pair of cabinets sold from the Wormser Collection sold at Christie's, New York, 14 November 1985, lot 194a, and the pair from Schloss Schillersdorf sold at Christie's, New York, 27 May 1999, lot 250. The distinctive figural mount depicting Bacchus belongs to a set of four with Ceres, Flora and Boreas, emblematic of the Four Seasons. These are cast after models by André-Charles Boulle himself, which appear, for instance, on the pair of armoires by Boulle at Versailles (illustrated in A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes Français, Paris, 1987, p. 75, fig. 22). The same distinctive figure of Dionysus, paired with Flora, can also be found on the cabinet with attributed to Montigny and which incoprorates panels of Louis XIV Boulle marquetry in the Getty Museum, Los Angeles, while those of Boreas and Ceres feature on that from the collection of the Marquis of Lincolnshire (illustrated in M. Harris & Sons, A Catalogue and Index of Old Furniture and Works of Decorative Art, n.d., p. 437). Bacchus also appears on the cabinet at Waddesdon.