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Lot Essay
Pierre Garnier, maître in 1742.
With its architectural stop-fluted pilasters and dependence on the flame-figured mahogany for richness of effect, this secrétaire directly relates to the oeuvre of Pierre Garnier (circa 1725 - 1806). Established in the rue Neuve des Petits Champs, Garnier was one of the protagonists of the goût Grec style which championed the return to antiquity. He exhibited a neoclassical piece of furniture after a design by the architect Charles de Wailly in the Salon of 1761. Recommended by Madame Geoffrin and mentioned in the Tablettes Royales des Renommés in 1772, he was the ébéniste of the Marquis de Marigny (brother of Madame de Pompadour) but also of Madame du Barry, Madame de Brunoy, the duchesse de Bourbon and the duchesse de Mazarin.
A secrétaire of very similar character, stamped by both Garnier and Dautriche, to whom Garnier presumably sub-contracted the commission, is illustrated in A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes Français de Louis XIV à la Révolution, Paris, 1989, fig. 260. Similar stop-fluted pilasters featured on the bas d'armoires supplied by Garnier to the marquis de Marigny (op.cit., fig. 256), although Simon Oeben is also known to have used this motif on furniture supplied to the duc de Choiseul (ibid., 284-7).
With its architectural stop-fluted pilasters and dependence on the flame-figured mahogany for richness of effect, this secrétaire directly relates to the oeuvre of Pierre Garnier (circa 1725 - 1806). Established in the rue Neuve des Petits Champs, Garnier was one of the protagonists of the goût Grec style which championed the return to antiquity. He exhibited a neoclassical piece of furniture after a design by the architect Charles de Wailly in the Salon of 1761. Recommended by Madame Geoffrin and mentioned in the Tablettes Royales des Renommés in 1772, he was the ébéniste of the Marquis de Marigny (brother of Madame de Pompadour) but also of Madame du Barry, Madame de Brunoy, the duchesse de Bourbon and the duchesse de Mazarin.
A secrétaire of very similar character, stamped by both Garnier and Dautriche, to whom Garnier presumably sub-contracted the commission, is illustrated in A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes Français de Louis XIV à la Révolution, Paris, 1989, fig. 260. Similar stop-fluted pilasters featured on the bas d'armoires supplied by Garnier to the marquis de Marigny (op.cit., fig. 256), although Simon Oeben is also known to have used this motif on furniture supplied to the duc de Choiseul (ibid., 284-7).