Live Auction 21919An Opulent Aesthetic: An Important Private Collection from an English Country House
A LATE LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD, AMARANTH AND PARQUETRY BREAKFRONT COMMODE
Lot 40

A LATE LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD, AMARANTH AND PARQUETRY BREAKFRONT COMMODE

CIRCA 1765, ATTRIBUTED TO JEAN-FRANCOIS OEBEN

Closed9 February 2023

Estimate

GBP 50,000–80,000

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A LATE LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD, AMARANTH AND PARQUETRY BREAKFRONT COMMODE
CIRCA 1765, ATTRIBUTED TO JEAN-FRANCOIS OEBEN
With bleu turquin marble top and three frieze drawers with pierced guilloche panels and above two long drawers, decorated sans traverse with banded panels with applied roundels to the angles, the apron centred by a foliated mask mount, the angles with ram's headed mounts, the sides with conforming raised parquetry panels, on cabriole legs terminating in lion's paw sabots, the top with blue-bordered canted rectangular paper label inscribed '1', three handles and back leg sabots later
35 in. (89 cm.) high; 52 in. (132 cm.) wide; 24 3/4 in. (63 cm.) deep

Anonymous sale, Christie's New York, 20 October 2006, lot 765 ($120,000).

Specialist note


Jean-François Oeben, ébéniste du roi in 1754 and maître circa 1761.

This elegant model of breakfront commode 'à la grecque', with its elaborate cube parquetry pattern with interlaced circles and strapwork borders, first evolved in the workshop of Jean-François Oeben around 1750-1760 (see F.J.B. Watson, Louis XVI Furniture, 1960, p. 68). The design, with its stylized Greek-key framing and bucranium-cast mounts, clearly characterises the nascent neo-classicism of the goût grec style of the late Louis XV period.

Closely related commodes à la grecque stamped by Oeben are in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (illustrated in R. Stratmann-Döhler, Jean-François Oeben, Paris, 2002, p. 54) and sold Christie's, New York, 11 November 1978, lot 136, while a further example in a private collection is illustrated in A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes Français de Louis XIV à la Révolution, Paris, 1989, p. 261, fig. 276.

This model evidently achieved great success and was soon emulated by other Parisian ébénistes, such as Jacques Dautriche (maître in 1765) and Pierre Macret (ébéniste suivant la Cour from 1756). A very similar example stamped by Macret was sold from the estate of the 4th Earl of Wharncliffe, Christie's, London, 12 June 2003, lot 1195, and a further related example by Dautriche with a Greek key mount to the frieze and slight variation to the apron mount, was sold anonymously in the same sale, lot 1073. More recently a closely related commode attributed to Oeben, albeit on a less impressive scale was sold, Christie's, Paris, 17 November 2011, lot 247 (€70,600).