Live Auction 5706The Opulent Eye - 500 Years: Decorative Arts Europe
A NAPOLEON III ORMOLU-MOUNTED PIETRE DURE, EBONY AND EBONISED BUREAU PLAT
Lot 59 THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN 

A NAPOLEON III ORMOLU-MOUNTED PIETRE DURE, EBONY AND EBONISED BUREAU PLAT

AFTER A MODEL BY CHARLES CRESSENT, ATTRIBUTED TO MATHIEU BEFORT, THIRD QUARTER 19TH CENTURY

Closed20 September 2012

Price Realised

GBP 49,250

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A NAPOLEON III ORMOLU-MOUNTED PIETRE DURE, EBONY AND EBONISED BUREAU PLAT
AFTER A MODEL BY CHARLES CRESSENT, ATTRIBUTED TO MATHIEU BEFORT, THIRD QUARTER 19TH CENTURY
The canted rectangular top inlaid with strapwork, floral sprays, perched birds and fruit in hardstones including lapis lazuli, malachite, giallo di Siena, Campan green, Rouge Languedoc and alabastro, above a shaped panelled frieze applied in relief with fruiting floral sprays, fronted by a central spring-activated drawer flanked by bearded masks and a drawer to each side, the reverse with false drawers, on cabriole legs headed by espagnolettes and terminating in scrolled sabots
30¾ in. (78 cm.) high; 52 in. (132 cm.) wide; 28¼ in. (71.5 cm.) deep

Recorded in the present owner's family collection since circa 1940.

Specialist note

This bureau plat can be attributed to the ébéniste Mathieu Befort, dit Befort Jeune by comparison to two identical examples stamped by Befort; one is in the Gilbert Collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the other sold Christie's, New York, 21-22 October 2010, lot 635 ($74,500). The firm of Befort specialized in 'furniture in the style of Boulle and in the use of bronze and hardstone' (D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le mobilier français du XIXe siècle, Paris, 1965, p. 29) and received a medal at the 1844 Exposition des produits de l'industrie français. Befort Jeune was recorded at Neuves-Saint-Gilles from 1844 until 1880.