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Lot Essay
Of Belgian origin, the ébéniste-marqueteur, Jean-Baptiste Befort (1783-1840) settled in Paris and established his atelier in the faubourg Saint-Honoré in 1817. Despite being reported as "avoir porté le talent d'ébéniste à un degré de supériorité que les meilleurs ouvriers de Paris peuvent attester", Befort was unsuccessful in his attempt to join the Garde-meuble de la Couronne in that same year due to the lack of available places. However, his reputation was such that during the reign of Louis-Philippe he obtained several commissions to supply furniture for the refurbished apartments of the duc d'Orléans in the pavillon de Marsan at the Tuileries. No doubt such commissions included a number of pieces of Boulle furniture, for which the duc had a particular penchant (see lot 200 in this sale for a Boulle cabinet supplied for the duc d'Orléans by Alexandre-Louis Bellangé).
The present contre partie Boulle coffre de mariage, reputedly shown at the 1839 Exposition des produits de l'industrie française, is virtually identical to a pair supplied by Befort to William Murray, 4th Earl of Mansfield and 9th Viscount Stormont, and now on display at one end of the Inner Hall at Scone Palace, Perthshire. As befits their purpose, the earl may have commissioned the coffers at the time of his marriage in 1829 to Louisa Eddison. Equally, however, and possibly more likely bearing in mind the exhibition date of the present example, they may have formed part of new furnishings at Scone on his succession to Earl in 1840.
The present contre partie Boulle coffre de mariage, reputedly shown at the 1839 Exposition des produits de l'industrie française, is virtually identical to a pair supplied by Befort to William Murray, 4th Earl of Mansfield and 9th Viscount Stormont, and now on display at one end of the Inner Hall at Scone Palace, Perthshire. As befits their purpose, the earl may have commissioned the coffers at the time of his marriage in 1829 to Louisa Eddison. Equally, however, and possibly more likely bearing in mind the exhibition date of the present example, they may have formed part of new furnishings at Scone on his succession to Earl in 1840.