Live Auction 21919An Opulent Aesthetic: An Important Private Collection from an English Country House
A PAIR OF LOUIS XV GILTWOOD BERGERES
Lot 76

A PAIR OF LOUIS XV GILTWOOD BERGERES

BY JEAN-BAPTISTE CRESSON, MID-18TH CENTURY

Closed9 February 2023

Price Realised

GBP 113,400

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A PAIR OF LOUIS XV GILTWOOD BERGERES
BY JEAN-BAPTISTE CRESSON, MID-18TH CENTURY
Each with arched back, arms and squab-cushion covered in gold embossed-velvet, the cresting with rocaille cartouche flanked by floral scrolls and with scallop-shell angles above the conformingly-carved C-scroll seat-rail and on cabriole legs headed by conforming motifs to the front and with scallop-shells to the back-legs, terminating in raised foliate scroll feet, stamped 'I.B. CRESSON'
41 in. (104 cm.) high; 32 1/2 in. (82.5 cm.) wide; 34 1/2 in. (88 cm.) deep

Private American Collection until sold,
Anonymous sale, Christie's, New York, 20 October 2006, lot 764 ($216,000).

Specialist note


Jean-Baptiste Cresson, maître in 1741.

The richly carved, fluid line of these generously proportioned bergères is characteristic of the elegant 'pittoresque' style practised by Parisian menuisiers in the 1740s and 1750s. Jean-Baptiste Cresson came from a famous family of menuisiers, his father Charles having received his maîtrise in 1720.

The Cresson dynasty of menuisiers was founded by Charles and Jean Cresson during the Règence and continued by Jean-Baptiste, Louis I, René and Michel during the first half of the 18th century. The Cressons, among the most talented menuisiers of the era, shared a workshop on the rue de Cléry au Gros Chapelet and not surprisingly, there are common traits in all their documented work.

A related pair of bergères in the Wrightsman Collection by his cousin Louis Cresson, who received his maîtrise in 1738, is illustrated in F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection: Furniture, New York, 1966, vol. I, p. 23, cat. 17.