A FRENCH ORMOLU-MOUNTED AMARANTH, MAHOGANY AND PARQUETRY SIDE-CABINET

The present lot, of demi-lune outline, recalls the commode à l'anglaise supplied to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette by court ébénistes such as Stöckel and Riesener. The shape is also indebted to a console desserte executed by Jean-Henri Riesener in the early 1780s and today in The Frick Collection, New York (1916.5.72). Cabinets of this form are exemplary of cabinetmaker Henry Dasson’s finest output. Especially characteristic is the trellis parquetry filled with flower stems and the finely cast and chased ormolu Corinthian capitals. Although this example is apparently unsigned, identical pairs of this form were sold Christie's, London, 28 October 2014, lot 40 (£98,500), and Christie's, London, 27 September 2007, lot 104 (£180,500).