Live Auction 7812Belgravia and Lake Geneva - Two European Collections
Christie’s roundel
Lot 196

A FRENCH ORMOLU-MOUNTED KINGWOOD AND TULIPWOOD COMMODE

CIRCA 1860, AFTER THE MODEL BY CHARLES CRESSENT

Closed14 May 2009

Price Realised

GBP 7,250

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A FRENCH ORMOLU-MOUNTED KINGWOOD AND TULIPWOOD COMMODE
CIRCA 1860, AFTER THE MODEL BY CHARLES CRESSENT
The shaped Montjoie marble top, above two drawers diagonally-veneered and mounted with a monkey on a swing flanked by putti and surrounded by C-scrolls cast with shell-work and foliage, the apron mounted with a mask plaque on splayed tapering legs on spuriously paw feet, stamped twice spuriously 'P.A.FOULLET' and branded with a fleur-de-lys, the backboard inscribed '49A', the angle mounts associated, incorporating some 18th Century elements
35¼ in. (89.5 cm.) high; 57 in. (145 cm.) wide; 26 in. (66 cm.) deep

Ernest Rechnitzer, Esq. (+); Christie's, London, 19 May 1955, lot 91.
Anonymous sale, Christie's, London, 6 December 1979, lot 117.

Specialist note

This commode can be closely related to the commode aux enfants balançant un singe, c. 1749-1755 by Charles Cressent (1695-1768) in the Musée du Louvre (illustrated in A. Pradère, Charles Cressent, sculpteur, ébéniste du Régent, Dijon, 2003, pp. 162-163), one of his most celebrated pieces. A further commode of the same model by Cressent, circa 1745-49, is in the Jack and Belle Linsky Collection, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (ill. D.O. Kisluk-Grosheide et.al, European Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Highlights of the Collection, New York, 2006, pp. 5 and 115, fig. 44).

It was formerly in the collection of the late Ernest Rechnitzer, a significant portion of which was sold at Christie's, London, 19 May 1955. This remarkable collection included many exceptional pieces, including a superb ormolu-mounted Japanese black and gilt-lacquer bureau de dame by Jacques Dubois (maître in 1742), which was then in the renowned Deane Johnson collection; an important Louis XVI black lacquer bonheur-du-jour by Claude-Charles Saunier (maître in 1752); and a Louis XVI black lacquer secrétaire à abattant by the celebrated ébéniste Charles Topino (maître in 1773).