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A LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD, KINGWOOD AND MARQUETRY BONHEUR-DU-JOUR
- BY ROGER VANDERCRUSE, KNOWN AS LACROIX, CIRCA 1760

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A LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD, KINGWOOD AND MARQUETRY BONHEUR-DU-JOUR
BY ROGER VANDERCRUSE, KNOWN AS LACROIX, CIRCA 1760
Estimate
(Set Currency)
    £30,000 - £50,000
  • ($49,020 - $81,700)

Sale Information

Sale 7816
le grand gout- a private european collection
17 June 2009
London, King Street

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Lot Description

A LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD, KINGWOOD AND MARQUETRY BONHEUR-DU-JOUR
BY ROGER VANDERCRUSE, KNOWN AS LACROIX, CIRCA 1760
Inlaid overall with tea and writing utensils and books, the rectangular top with three-quarter gallery above six drawers, above a Greek key frieze with drawer, enclosing a gilt-tooled green leather-lined writing-surface concealing two compartments with original blue silk lining, and three further compartments fitted with silvered boxes, with scrolled corner mounts, on cabriole legs with cabochon sabots, joined by an inlaid undertier with three-quarter gallery, stamped 'RVLC', mounts re-gilt, the drawer originally with guides
35 in. (89 cm.) high; 24½ in. (62 cm.) wide; 14 in. (36 cm.) deep

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VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium

Provenance

Anonymous sale, Delorme & Fraysse, Paris, 29 October 1996, lot 96 (248,000 FF).
Acquired from Partridge, London, circa 1998.

Lot Notes

Roger Vandercruse, known as Lacroix, maître in 1755.

The distinctive 'naif' marquetry of teapots, vessels, flower-filled vases and urns, inspired by the ornamental borders of Chinese coromandel lacquer screens, is characteristic of the work of the ébéniste and specialist marqueteur Charles Topino. Based in the rue Faubourg-Saint-Antoine, Topino - as his daybook reveals - is known to have supplied marquetry panels of this type for his confrères, the marchand-ébénistes, who then sold them on as their own (A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes Français de Louis XIV à la Revolution, Paris, 1989, p. 319). Roger Vandercruse did not make use of Topino's marquetry panels, but almost certainly executed these in his own atelier. Only purchases of ebony from Topino are listed in his Livre-Journal. His examples of 'naif' marquetry are indeed highly individual both in choice of objets and arrangement, and these are clearly his own invention (C. Roinet, Roger Vandercruse dit La Croix 1727-1799, Paris, 2000, p. 64).

This model of bonheur-du-jour was clearly developed by 1775, as the ébéniste du Roi Gilles Joubert (d. 1775) delivered 'Un petit secrétaire de bois de rose représentant des paniers de fleurs, fruits, theyers et tasses façon de la Chine...' to the Garde-Meuble for the use of the comte d'Artois at Compiègne (A. Pradère, op. cit., Paris, 1989, p. 320).

A related bonheur-du-jour by Charles Topino in the National Museum in Stockholm is illustrated in S. Barbier Sainte Marie, 'Charles Topino', L'Estampille L'Objet d'Art, 10 (1999), p. 38, fig. 5. Further related examples were sold from the collection of Mrs James de Rothschild, Christie's London, 2 December 1971, lot 129, and anonymously at Christie's London, 9 December 1993, lot 86 (£72,000).

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