A Very Fine Louis XVI Ormolu-Mounted Amaranth Bearing the Stamps of Philippe Montigny and Rene Dubois. Circa 1775

A Very Fine Louis XVI Ormolu-Mounted Amaranth Bearing the Stamps of Philippe Montigny and Rene Dubois.  Circa 1775.

The rectangular top is inset with a gilt-tooled red leather writing surface and is surrounded by a chiselled ormolu border. The front with three drawers flanked and separated by ormolu rosettes and has each side fitted with a leather-lined writing slide and raised on square tapered legs headed by ormolu laurel swags and ending in ormolu sabots.

Provenance

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

Philippe Montigny (1734- 1800) became maitre ebeniste in 1766. He was born in Paris, the son of Louis Montigny, an ebeniste and artisan privilegie in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. He became a Maitre in 1766 and took over his father’s workshop in the Cour de La Juiverie, where he was to remain for the rest of his working life. Between 1770 and 1780 Montigny specialised and produced a series of grand and distinguished bureau plats.

Rene Dubois (1737 – 1799)René Dubois followed his father Jacques Dubois, becoming a master ébéniste when he was only eighteen years old. He continued to work for his father, using his father's stamp of I DUBOIS, and directed the family workshop with his mother after Jacques's death in 1763. Nine years later Dubois's mother relinquished control of the workshop, selling the existing stock to her son, who agreed to pay her an annuity. An inventory of the shop taken in 1772 reveals a prosperous business with about eighty pieces of furniture either finished or unfinished, including gaming tables, writing desks, screens, bookcases, and corner cupboards. Like his father, René continued to produce lacquer furniture, but he specialized in furniture painted with beige scenes on a green ground. About 1790, with the market for luxury products interrupted by the French Revolution, he stopped making furniture and was forced to concentrate on selling. He died in poverty in 1799.

Dimensions

Price on application

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance