A LOUIS XVI ORMOLU-MOUNTED MAHOGANY CONSOLE DESSERTE

Bernard Molitor, maître in 1787.

With its bold architectural lines, this richly-mounted mahogany console desserte is characteristic of the early work of Bernard Molitor, maître in 1787. Ulrich Leben's comprehensive research on Molitor demonstrates the diversity of the oeuvre of this talented ébéniste, who was active from the end of the ancien régime until approximately 1818 (U.Leben, Molitor, New York, 1992, p. 32). His most accomplished early work consists of a well-documented group of mahogany furniture executed around 1790, which closely relates to the restrained mahogany furniture produced by the ébéniste Jean-Henri Riesener shortly before the Revolution. Interestingly, Leben suggests that there might have been professional ties between the two ébénistes, which would explain why certain early stamped works by Molitor not only display strong stylistic affinities with furniture by Riesener, but also carry strikingly similar mounts. Molitor executed various consoles which closely relate to the present example, which Leben dates between 1785 and 1792, including a commode a l'anglaise with an identical scrolling foliate frieze mount and similar detached tapering corners in the Wallace Collection (Inv. F249). Shortly after, between 1790 and 1803, Molitor executed an important group of furniture, in mahogany and sumptuously decorated with lacquer panels, for Antoine César de Choiseul, duc de Praslin (U.Leben, 'Furniture made by Bernard Molitor for the duc de Choiseul Praslin', Furniture History, Leeds, 1991, pp. 100-106).