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Lot Essay
Charles Cressent, 1685-1768, marchand-ébéniste and sculpteur.
The 'C' couronné poinçon was a tax mark employed on any alloy containing copper between March 1745 and February 1749.
With superb and finely chased sculptural mounts, this magnificent commode can be firmly attributed to Charles Cressent, whose fame made him one of the rare ébénistes to be mentioned by name throughout the 18th century. Cressent designed a number of very distinctive similar commodes - the commode form itself being a new 'invention' in furniture making in the early 18th Century.
This commode is comparable to a number of similar examples illustrated in Alexandre Pradère's seminal monograph on Cressent. The present commode shares the distinct 'moustache' form mounts and handles to the front with a group of ten commodes, which feature a variety of different angle mounts or chutes, referred to as ‘Les commodes à doubles crosses en S et chutes de fleurs' (illustrated A. Pradère, Charles Cressent, Sculpteur, Ebéniste du Régent, Dijon, 2003, cat. n0. 88 pp. 283-285). The chutes or angle mounts of the present commode however are shared with a number of commodes from a different corpus of Cressent’s oeuvre, including one preserved in the Victoria & Albert Museum (inv. no. 1119: 1 to 5-1882), and three commodes formerly in the collections of Alphonse de Rothschild, Charles and Jayne Wrightsman, and Robert de Rothschild respectively (ibid., p. 280).
CHARLES CRESSENT
Charles Cressent is indisputably the most representative cabinetmaker of the Régence period, when instead of elaborate marquetry, fashion started to turn to furniture finished with relatively simple wood veneers, but fitted with ormolu mounts of increasingly sculptural quality and splendour. In this new style, Cressent stood alone, his early training as a sculptor being evident in the originality and quality of the mounts which he produced. He became a master sculptor in 1719 and a member of the Academy of Saint-Luc. He is recorded as both sculpteur and ébéniste to the duc d'Orléans, and he was constantly in difficulties with the guild of fondeurs and doreurs because, in contravention of the guild rules, he chased and gilded bronzes in his own workshop. In many instances he had even supplied models which he had created himself to the casters of his bronzes. His defence against this was that it enabled him to supervise the quality of the work and to prevent unauthorized copies being made; it has to be said that his defiance of the guild regulations has left a legacy of ormolu mounts of unparalleled beauty.
The 'C' couronné poinçon was a tax mark employed on any alloy containing copper between March 1745 and February 1749, as this commode was made circa 1730-40 the presence of the poinçon indicates it must have been traded sometime between 1745 and 1749.
The 'C' couronné poinçon was a tax mark employed on any alloy containing copper between March 1745 and February 1749.
With superb and finely chased sculptural mounts, this magnificent commode can be firmly attributed to Charles Cressent, whose fame made him one of the rare ébénistes to be mentioned by name throughout the 18th century. Cressent designed a number of very distinctive similar commodes - the commode form itself being a new 'invention' in furniture making in the early 18th Century.
This commode is comparable to a number of similar examples illustrated in Alexandre Pradère's seminal monograph on Cressent. The present commode shares the distinct 'moustache' form mounts and handles to the front with a group of ten commodes, which feature a variety of different angle mounts or chutes, referred to as ‘Les commodes à doubles crosses en S et chutes de fleurs' (illustrated A. Pradère, Charles Cressent, Sculpteur, Ebéniste du Régent, Dijon, 2003, cat. n0. 88 pp. 283-285). The chutes or angle mounts of the present commode however are shared with a number of commodes from a different corpus of Cressent’s oeuvre, including one preserved in the Victoria & Albert Museum (inv. no. 1119: 1 to 5-1882), and three commodes formerly in the collections of Alphonse de Rothschild, Charles and Jayne Wrightsman, and Robert de Rothschild respectively (ibid., p. 280).
CHARLES CRESSENT
Charles Cressent is indisputably the most representative cabinetmaker of the Régence period, when instead of elaborate marquetry, fashion started to turn to furniture finished with relatively simple wood veneers, but fitted with ormolu mounts of increasingly sculptural quality and splendour. In this new style, Cressent stood alone, his early training as a sculptor being evident in the originality and quality of the mounts which he produced. He became a master sculptor in 1719 and a member of the Academy of Saint-Luc. He is recorded as both sculpteur and ébéniste to the duc d'Orléans, and he was constantly in difficulties with the guild of fondeurs and doreurs because, in contravention of the guild rules, he chased and gilded bronzes in his own workshop. In many instances he had even supplied models which he had created himself to the casters of his bronzes. His defence against this was that it enabled him to supervise the quality of the work and to prevent unauthorized copies being made; it has to be said that his defiance of the guild regulations has left a legacy of ormolu mounts of unparalleled beauty.
The 'C' couronné poinçon was a tax mark employed on any alloy containing copper between March 1745 and February 1749, as this commode was made circa 1730-40 the presence of the poinçon indicates it must have been traded sometime between 1745 and 1749.