A Highly Important pair of Louis XV blue and white commodes, Made for Madame De Pompadour in 1748 for the Chateau De La Celle. Bearing the Stamp of Chevallier .

Of serpentine rectangular form standing on four cabriole legs, which support Marbre de Rance tops of conforming shape with double mouldings. The white lacquer surfaces profusely painted with a papiers des Indes decoration of birds, rocks, foliage and fruits. The fronts with narrow painted borders, recently discovered under layers of yellow lacquer. They are richly mounted with ormolu mounts of the highest quality. The sides with sumptuously painted trompe l’œil rococo borders resembling carved framing. Although stamped by Chevallier the commodes were almost certainly made by Mathieu Criaerd and the Vernis Martin Lacquer painted by Alexis Peyrotte.

Charles Chevalier (1703-1771) and Mathieu Criaerd (1689-1776)                                   

The Chevalier Dynasty of  Parisian ébénistes constitutes one the longest running family of cabinet makers of 18^th. Century France beginning with Mathieu, who with his wife Anne Martin had four sons and four daughters  The eldest of these four sons was Jean -Mathieu I (1694-1768); he was the brother-in-law of the vernisseur,  Guillaume Martin (1689-1749) .[i] The next was Jean François, who went to Potsdam. Then came Jean Mathieu (1694-1768) who had a son,  Jean-Mathieu II and a daughter, Suzanne, who married Antoine-Mathieu Criaerd , the son of Mathieu Criaerd and the maker of Madame de Mailly’s blue and white lacquer commode in the Louvres (see below).  Jean-Mathieu Chevalier was a very successful ébéniste and marchand. 

Finally to Mathieu’s youngest son, Charles  His younger brother, Charles had a different atelier in the Rue du Bac (from 1739) and was received as a maítre before 1738 and a juré in 1744. Calin Demetrescu  suggests, however, that Charles’s business was run along very different lines to that of his elder brothers and nephew,  Antoine Mathieu Criaerd, who took the additional name, Chevalier on the death of his uncle in 1771. The valuation of his stock alone was valued at 10,000 livres and included not less than 105 commode carcasses in various states of completion, 16 encoignures, 60 secretaires and countless other things. Interestingly, there are no work benches at his death! He certainly trained as an ébéniste and would have to pass the rigours of examination by the Guild and, as an examiner (Juré) himself. In the 1769 Almanach d’Indication…ou de Vrai Mérite, he is described as being one of the principal exponents of his craft. He had considereable contacts  within his Guild, Gaspard Coulon, his father-in-law, being the Principal. He was related, too, to the Saunier family and, of course to the Criaerds. However, he appears to have been prosperous in his own right and counted among his clients some of the highest echelons of acristocracy living in nearby Faubourg Saint Germain. As a marchand ,  he would be able to bring together several disciplines. It is, of course possible that Charles Chevalier supplied the commodes to Madame de Pompadour but there is no evidence. Her principal marchand-mercier, Lazare Duvaux is much more likely to have supplied them but unfortunately the second volume of his Livre-Journal, (1748-1758) only begins on the 17^th. September 1748 when the furnishing of the Château de la Celle de Saint Cloud was well under way. It would now appear that it is much more likely that Hebert supplied them.

Mathieu Criaerd (1689-1776)

The younger brother of  André Criaerd, he produced furniture of the very highest quality, mostly in the Louis XV style. Some at the beginning of his career, which spanned some thirty years, are in a late Régence style but he seems not to have particularly adopted the transitional style at the end of the reign. Although much of the marquetry is of geometric form aux bois des Indes, with few months,  there exists a large group of very similar form (see below) luxuriously mounted with gilt bronzes of the most exquisite form and finish. They are used on geometric, floral and oriental lacquer surfaces, one having been delivered by Hébert for the Cabinet of the Dauphin in 1747. Hebert also supplied the famous suite of furniture for Madame de Mailly at the Château de Choisy, which is recorded in his journal on the 30^th. October 1742.

Hébert describes Criaerd as an ébéniste de couleur which implies that he made a number of these pieces of furniture, although he could also have been referring to genuine oriental lacquer pieces and those made in that manner. Some may have started off life as blue and white furniture and then been stripped and replaqué  with veneers. There are a number of examples of this practice in Lazare Duvaux’s Journals, such was the ephemeral nature of style in 18^th. Century France.  These four examples are of exceptional rarity; a pair is unheard of !

Sophie Mouquin has suggested that the shape, which is used by other makers such as BVRB, Dubois, Jean Desforges and Migeon IV are to a design by Hébert himself.

While bearing the stamp of Charles Chevalier (1700-1771), the actual maker of these commodes is, without doubt, Mathieu Criaerd (1689-1776). His stamp is simply M Criard and he was not only related to him by marriage but was also his colleague.

COMMENTARY:

The Comtesse de Mailly, received the blue and white furniture at the Château de Choisy in 1742. She was to occupy the position of maitresse-en-titre for a short time only[i]. Two of her sisters followed in succession, the Marquise de Vintimille, who died giving birth to the King’s son, the Comte de Luc. M de Mailly returned to look after the baby but was quickly supplanted by another sister, the Duchesse de Châteauroux. She too died young in 1744. The King was heartbroken but found the usual intrigues of his aristocratic mistresses in seeking wealth and power tiresome. It was assumed that he would take on the fourth sister, Madame de Lauragais. While he liked her company, it was not to be and nor would he go back to M. de Mailly. The King’s mistresses had always been drawn from noble families; a bourgoisewas unthinkable, nor could they be formally presented to the King and Queen.

In February of 1745, to celebrate the marriage of the Dauphin a whole series of masked balls was organised. One of these took place in the King’s riding school at Versailles, which was where the King probably met Madame de Pompadour for the first time.

Dimensions

Price on application

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance