A PAIR OF RUSSIAN 'RETOUR D'EGYPTE' ORMOLU-MOUNTED VERRE ÉGLOMISÉ AND MAHOGANY COMMODES

The marble-topped and ormolu-enriched commodes are embellished in the early l9th Century antique fashion with golden Egyptian tablets and medallions in verre églomisé on a veneer, whose silken figuring recalls swagged drapery. The marble is cut above the commodes' canted pilasters that are raised on octagonal herm-tapered or quiver-like feet, with starred diadems in golden bas-relief wreathing their reed-banded capitals. While the handle-plates feature pharaonic heads and the pilaster tablets feature hieroglyphs including falcons and jackals on a blue-ground, the sides are embellished with priests bearing sacrificial implements. The latter are displayed in palm-flowered tablets, whose pearled and lozenged compartments correspond to an Egyptian pattern illustrated in 1799 in Jean-Simon de Verberie's, Cahier des desseins des Pendules and to those on a 'Commode Antique' pattern in Pierre de La Mésangère’s, Meubles et Objets de Goût, 1802. The commodes also reflect the enthusiasm for Egyptian ornament promoted by Baron Vivant Denon’ in Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Egypte, 1802.