ATTRIBUTED TO PHILIPPE-CLAUDE MONTIGNY, CIRCA 1775, THE LACQUER CIRCA 1600-1625

This sumptuous secrétaire à abattant embodies the endless pursuit by eighteenth-century marchands-merciers and ébénistes for the novel, unexpected and exquisite. Designed to display the large and rare Japanese lacquer panels that adorn the front and sides, the lot is a magnificent result of the unique system of production in Paris under the Ancien Régime, arising from the collaboration of these two creative tastemaker groups. By the mid-eighteenth century, the use of Asian lacquer was widespread among Parisian ébénistes, though the majority of the works featured lacquer panels originating in China. Japanese lacquer was, by contrast, much rarer and more costly, due in part to Japan’s protectionist policy, or Sakoku (‘Edict of the Closure of the Country’), which had greatly restricted trade with foreigners since the seventeenth century. In Paris, Japanese lacquer was therefore among the most luxurious materials, coveted by the most elite and fashionable collectors.

The namban lacquer to the present secretaire, incorporating mother-of-pearl, dates to the seventeenth century and belongs to a type which comprises some of the first Japanese export lacquer goods to arrive in the West. Namban, which translates literally to 'Southern Barbarian', first referred to Portuguese merchants who arrived on the southwest coast of Japan in 1543. The term persisted throughout the continued arrival of foreign ships from Europe over the next centuries. This type of lacquer decoration was made expressly for export, initially primarily for Portuguese markets in the sixteenth century. When the Dutch gained a foothold in Japan in the early 1600s, they quickly recognized the trade potential of lacquered goods, and the first shipment of namban lacquer from Japan to Holland arrived in 1610.

While European cabinetmakers of the Baroque era employed sixteenth and early-seventeenth-century namban lacquer with dense decoration, often geometric or foliate, their successors throughout the eighteenth typically preferred more sparse and tranquil decoration, selecting seventeenth and eighteenth-century lacquer panels frequently with serene landscapes. Few cabinetmakers in Paris ventured to use namban lacquer, in large part due to the technical difficulties posed by the extreme fragility the material. The early, more vibrant, namban lacquer to the present secretaire is therefore decidedly more rare in furniture produced during the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI, and there exist only a handful of such pieces known today. These include a mechanical table à la bourgogne by René Dubois in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (acc. no. 1982.60.60) and a bureau à cylindre sold from the collection of Monsieur and Madame Luigi Anton Laura, Sotheby’s/Poulain Le Fur, Paris, 27 June 2001, lot 79. Additionally, three secrétaires à abattant featuring namban panels are recorded: one illustrated A. Coleridge, ‘Mrs. Rudolph de Trafford’s Collection of Furniture’, Apollo, no. 77, 1963, pp. 102-108; one sold Christie's, London, 4 December 1980, lot 144 and subsequently illustrated T. Wolvesperges, Le Meuble Français en Laque au XVIIIe Siècle, Paris and Brussels, 2000, p. 35; and another, previously in an American private collection.

Mrs. Rudolph de Trafford’s secrétaire is almost identical to our lot, being fitted the same mounts, and with lacquer panels decorated according to the same overall composition. The two desks differ, however, in a few details including designs of the wings of the birds in flight, the tails of the peacocks and the fences depicted in the lacquer. The secrétaire sold by Christie's in 1980 and illustrated by Wolvesperges is also very similar, sharing ormolu mounts of virtually the same design and fitted with very similar panels. However, where the fall-front of the present secrétaire à abattant is decorated with fanning peacocks in a fenced garden, the illustrated example features a single phoenix in flight, and where the lower cupboard doors of our lot are decorated with additional birds, the other secrétaire shows two crouching lions. A further secrétaire with namban panels was sold recently from the collection of Bernard Tapie, Artus, Paris, 13 April 2023, lot 39. This piece, is only somewhat comparable to our lot as it modestly does not feature any animal figures, and is without any ormolu mounts.

The identity of the ébéniste responsible for these wonderful and rare pieces of furniture cannot be determined with certainty, although presumably all three were produced in the same workshop. The de Trafford secrétaire is stamped indistinctly, and the example illustrated by Wolvesperges has traditionally been attributed to Philippe-Claude Montigny. Indeed, both it and the present secrétaire are fitted with a distinctive frieze-mount cast with lozenges and acanthus, variants of which Montigny is known to have used. A commode by him featuring this mount sold Sotheby’s, Paris, 16 May 2024, lot 66. Furthermore, the use of bold geometric frieze decoration is a hallmark of Montigny’s oeuvre, as evidenced by the Greek-key inlay of his iconic bureau plat ‘a la grecque.’ At the same time, however, the corner mounts, cast with ribbon-tied trophies of the sciences as well as flowers, are very similar to those on a secrétaire à abattant by Topino, see Christie’s, New York, 12 December 2024, lot 72. And although the lion-mask apron mount was a widespread device at the time, its modeling here is close to those found on works by Carlin and Riesener. There is, therefore, no sole design element that can allow a definite attribution to a specific maker. Whoever the ébéniste was, however, he must have been a master of his craft and well-connected in the circle of marchands-merciers, providing him with access to the most unusual and rare Japanese lacquer, and allowing the creation of a truly outstanding object.