A Fine Louis Xv Ormolu-Mounted Marquetry Commode, By Charles Cressent (1685-1768). Circa 1725.

A Fine Louis XV Ormolu-Mounted Marquetry Commode, By Charles Cressent (1685-1768). Circa 1725.

With a serpentine fronted scalloped and moulded Campan marble top. Inlaid with purple heart (Amaranth) and mahogany (bois satiné) veneer in a chequerboard pattern and containing three drawers, two small drawers on the top row with one long drawer below. Some of the mounts are stamped with the crowned ‘C’ and fitted with figurative mounts on the corners. This was a tax mark between 1745 and 1749. See below.

Provenance:

The Opera singer, José Todaro, Maison Laffitte, Chantilly, France.

Commentary:

Despite the crowned ‘C’ tax mark, this commode dates from the beginning of the 1720’s. Charles Cressent continued the form of commode knowns, á la Régence, in pre-Revolutionary sale catalogues. This is a commode, rather than being of three deep drawers (à tombaux) reaching almost to the ground (Fig. 8),  consists of two drawers separated by a transverse dividing them and is raised up on four legs (Fig. 9)

What distinguishes Cressent’s early works is the use of gilt bronze espagnolette mounts of female caryatid form. These first appear on a short lived series of bureau plats.iv They seem initially to have been derived from the artist, Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721, who depicted young smiling Spanish women, known as espagnolettes, from the elaborate lace headdresses they wore. However, a drawing by Boulle may serve to indicate an earlier source. Indeed, this style was much copied in the last quarter of the 17th. Century in the courts of Europe.

Dimensions

Price on application

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance