A FRENCH ORMOLU-MOUNTED AMARANTH AND TULIPWOOD MARQUETRY MEUBLE À HAUTEUR D'APPUI

The caryatid angle mounts on the present cabinet are derived from the eighteenth-century models by Charles Cressent (d. 1768; P. Kjellberg, Le mobillier français du XVIII siècle, Paris, 2002, p. 226). In the nineteenth century, various ébénistes of the Second Empire and Belle Époque incorporated Cressent's mounts into innovative and interpretive designs in the Louis XV style. These expressive espagnolette mounts are perhaps first recorded on a pair of consoles by Mathieu Befort (dit Befort Jeune) circa 1860, sold Kinross House, Scotland and Property Removed from the Residence of Mrs. Winston Spencer Churchill, Christie's, South Kensington, 30 March 2011, lot 100, and were likely acquired by Linke or Zwiener following Befort's death in 1880.