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Lot Essay
Philippe Claude Montigny, maître in 1766.
With its 'Etruscan' decoration and interlaced Greek-key frieze, this bureau plat reflects the earliest development of neo-classicism in the form of the goût grec style that swept to popularity in France from the mid-1750s with the celebrated suite of furniture supplied for the collector and financier Ange-Laurent Lalive de Jully.
Veneered in amaranth and tulipwood and decorated with rosette and laurel swag mounts, this bureau relates to a well-documented group of bureaux à la grecque executed by both Montigny and René Dubois. Executed in either amaranth and tulipwood or in ebony, often displaying the same distinctive ormolu mounts and of very similar proportions and design, this group reflects the close collaboration that existed between these two ébénistes.
The 'bureaux à la Grecque' executed by Montigny tend to be characterized by their slightly larger size and a unified veneer. Montigny was well-known for restoring and producing Boulle furniture and the rosette mounts on these bureaux derive from Boulle’s repertoire. Related bureaux include one stamped by Montigny with abbreviated Greek-key decoration across the three frieze-drawers in a private collection (illustrated A. Pradère, Les Ébénistes Français de Louis XIV à la Révolution, Paris, 1989, p. 306, fig. 344) and a further related bureau sold Sotheby’s, Monaco, 12 December, lot 36. A further bureau plat stamped by Montigny from this corpus with identical leg and angle mounts but with additional frieze mounts was sold Coutau-Bégarie, Paris, 3 June 2022, lot 273 (€193,200).
A very closely related bureau plat of slightly larger dimensions and minor variations to the ormolu mounts was supplied to the 6th Earl of Coventry on 12 March 1765 by the marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier and invoiced as 'un Bureau à la Grec, de 4 pieds et demi de long par 32 pouces de large, orné de bronzes dorés d'or moulu, du bois rose et amaranthe, le filet ..[?] avec deux tablettes qui se tirent[?] sur les côtes couvre de Mariquine...[?]...que les tablettes...420', currently preserved at Croome Court, Worcestershire (NT 170981). Given that the posthumous inventory of Jacques Dubois in 1763 recorded ‘une table de bois d'amaranthe à la Grecque’ and that Montigny himself was not elected maître until 1766, it seems likely that Dubois devised this model which was continued by his son and successor René (who continued to use his father’s stamp). Montigny and Dubois, who were first cousins and closely acquainted, collaborated together as evidenced by a number of pieces stamped by both ébénistes at Waddesdon Manor and in the Wallace Collection. It is possible that in his capacity of a marchand-ébéniste, Dubois initially subcontracted Montigny to supply bureaux of this form, who then further developed the model according to his own designs.
With its 'Etruscan' decoration and interlaced Greek-key frieze, this bureau plat reflects the earliest development of neo-classicism in the form of the goût grec style that swept to popularity in France from the mid-1750s with the celebrated suite of furniture supplied for the collector and financier Ange-Laurent Lalive de Jully.
Veneered in amaranth and tulipwood and decorated with rosette and laurel swag mounts, this bureau relates to a well-documented group of bureaux à la grecque executed by both Montigny and René Dubois. Executed in either amaranth and tulipwood or in ebony, often displaying the same distinctive ormolu mounts and of very similar proportions and design, this group reflects the close collaboration that existed between these two ébénistes.
The 'bureaux à la Grecque' executed by Montigny tend to be characterized by their slightly larger size and a unified veneer. Montigny was well-known for restoring and producing Boulle furniture and the rosette mounts on these bureaux derive from Boulle’s repertoire. Related bureaux include one stamped by Montigny with abbreviated Greek-key decoration across the three frieze-drawers in a private collection (illustrated A. Pradère, Les Ébénistes Français de Louis XIV à la Révolution, Paris, 1989, p. 306, fig. 344) and a further related bureau sold Sotheby’s, Monaco, 12 December, lot 36. A further bureau plat stamped by Montigny from this corpus with identical leg and angle mounts but with additional frieze mounts was sold Coutau-Bégarie, Paris, 3 June 2022, lot 273 (€193,200).
A very closely related bureau plat of slightly larger dimensions and minor variations to the ormolu mounts was supplied to the 6th Earl of Coventry on 12 March 1765 by the marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier and invoiced as 'un Bureau à la Grec, de 4 pieds et demi de long par 32 pouces de large, orné de bronzes dorés d'or moulu, du bois rose et amaranthe, le filet ..[?] avec deux tablettes qui se tirent[?] sur les côtes couvre de Mariquine...[?]...que les tablettes...420', currently preserved at Croome Court, Worcestershire (NT 170981). Given that the posthumous inventory of Jacques Dubois in 1763 recorded ‘une table de bois d'amaranthe à la Grecque’ and that Montigny himself was not elected maître until 1766, it seems likely that Dubois devised this model which was continued by his son and successor René (who continued to use his father’s stamp). Montigny and Dubois, who were first cousins and closely acquainted, collaborated together as evidenced by a number of pieces stamped by both ébénistes at Waddesdon Manor and in the Wallace Collection. It is possible that in his capacity of a marchand-ébéniste, Dubois initially subcontracted Montigny to supply bureaux of this form, who then further developed the model according to his own designs.