Live Auction 7812Belgravia and Lake Geneva - Two European Collections
Christie’s roundel
Lot 120

A FRENCH ORMOLU-MOUNTED CUT-BRASS AND TORTOISESHELL INLAID EBONY 'BOULLE' BUREAU PLAT

SECOND HALF 19TH CENTURY, AFTER THE MODEL BY ANDRÉ-CHARLES BOULLE

Closed14 May 2009

Price Realised

GBP 121,250

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A FRENCH ORMOLU-MOUNTED CUT-BRASS AND TORTOISESHELL INLAID EBONY 'BOULLE' BUREAU PLAT
SECOND HALF 19TH CENTURY, AFTER THE MODEL BY ANDRÉ-CHARLES BOULLE
The rectangular top with moulded surround, scrolled ancanthus border and inset with a red-leather writing surface, above a frieze with three drawers to the front and three simulated drawers to the back, each with a molded frame, the central drawers and sides centred by Bacchic masks, on tapering legs headed by female masks and terminating in acanthus-wrapped paw sabots
30 in. (76 cm.) high; 77 in. (196 cm.) wide; 36½ in. (92 cm.) deep

By repute, the duc de Chaulnes.
Anonymous sale, Christie's London, 18 June 1987, lot 208.

Specialist note

This fine bureau-plat is after the model by Louis XIV's ébéniste du roi, André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732) with his signature 'sphinx head' caryatid corner clasps, comparable to those on the 'Trianon commode' (lot 115), although here their wings are omitted. Of the original versions by Boulle the most celebrated was made circa 1715 for Louis-Henri de Bourbon, 7th Prince de Condé and is now displayed in the apartment of the dauphine Marie-Josèphe de Saxe, at Versailles. Other comparables are preserved in the Frick Collection, New York, and the Wallace Collection, London.