A LOUIS XIV ORMOLU-MOUNTED PREMIERE AND CONTRE-PARTIE, TORTOISESHELL AND FLORAL MARQUETRY CABINET-ON-STAND
- BY ANDRE-CHARLES BOULLE, CIRCA 1680, THE GILTWOOD MONOPODIA SUPPORTS CIRCA 1795

BY ANDRE-CHARLES BOULLE, CIRCA 1680, THE GILTWOOD MONOPODIA SUPPORTS CIRCA 1795

(Set Currency)

£700,000 - £1,000,000
• ($1,100,000 - $1,500,000)

• Place Bid

Sale 7745
important european furniture, sculpture & clocks
9 July 2009
London, King Street

A LOUIS XIV ORMOLU-MOUNTED PREMIERE AND CONTRE-PARTIE, TORTOISESHELL AND FLORAL MARQUETRY CABINET-ON-STAND
BY ANDRE-CHARLES BOULLE, CIRCA 1680, THE GILTWOOD MONOPODIA SUPPORTS CIRCA 1795
Inlaid in brass, pewter and tortoiseshell, the upper part with moulded cornice mounted with a late eighteenth century palmette and anthemion border, the slightly breakfront architectural façade with a central door inlaid in specimen woods with a parrot perched on an oak branch on a tortoiseshell ground with matted border with shell corner clasps and concave frame heightened with red-tinted tortoiseshell, enclosing an interior inlaid in tin and brass with geometric pattern on a richly mottled brown tortoiseshell ground, fitted with four drawers, the reverse of the door inlaid on a pewter ground with strapwork bands, surmounted by an elaborate military trophy with shields, spear and fasces centred by a profile medallion of Louis XIV, supported below by foliate mounts framing a female mask, surrounded each side by five drawers inlaid in brass and pewter in with scrolling foliage on a tortoiseshell ground mounted with foliate mask lock-plates, the contre-partie sides with elaborate scrolls on a pewter ground framing tortoiseshell-ground marquetry roundels with birds among flowering foliage in rich ormolu frames cast with overlapping berried laurel foliage, the convex frieze centred by a narrow panel with blue-tinted horn ground, the stand with an eared première-partie frieze drawer and a drawer each side, on giltwood Egyptian monopodia supports with ormolu edges, the back centred by a première-partie panel framed by narrow foliate panels, bordered with padouk, the concave-centred base similarly inlaid, on late eighteenth century gilt-bronze ball feet
72½ in. (184 cm.) high; 47 in. (119.5 cm.) wide; 21½ in. (52 cm.) deep

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

The Property of the Trustees of the 6th Earl of Strafford Will Trust, removed from Wrotham Park, Hertfordshire

Acquired by George Byng M.P. (1764 - 1847) for Wrotham Park - almost certainly at Oxenham's in 1828.
By descent to his nephew George Stevens Byng, 2nd Earl of Strafford, the son of John Byng, created 1st Earl of Strafford of the third creation.
Thence by descent at Wrotham Park.

List of Furniture, Porcelain, Paintings & Co., purchased by George Byng, Esq. for Wrotham Park, 1816 - 43:
'at Oxenhams 1828
a large upright German Cabinet inlaid with Brass and Mother of Pearl very richly ornamented with Ormolu, 275 guineas 288.15.0.'
Inventory of Household Furniture, China, Glass - and Pictures at Wrotham Park 1847:
'Drawing Room A rich Buhl cabinet on frame with inlaid panelled door on therm and gilt standards'
C. Cator and A. Pradère, 'A Connoisseur's Eye, George Byng's Boulle Furniture', Apollo, June 2009, pp. 56-64.

Executed by André-Charles Boulle at the height of his brilliance and displaying his talents as ébéniste, fondeur and ciseleur, this superb cabinet is mounted with dazzling ormolu mounts of sculptural quality set against elaborate marquetry in brass, pewter and tortoiseshell. Centred to front and sides are panels of the most virtuoso fruitwood marquetry on sumptuous tortoiseshell grounds, Boulle's most inventive skill. Datable to circa 1680 it forms part of a small group of related cabinets, most of which are in public collections.


CABINETS-ON-STANDS BY ANDRE-CHARLES BOULLE

Between 1670 and 1700 Boulle developed and refined his designs for the cabinet-on-stand with all its powerful associations as the vehicle for displaying his most inventive skills and ingenious techniques. Almost always conceived in pairs with première and contre-partie versions or in sets of three, using three base materials, Boulle began the series in the 1670s with cabinets executed in wood marquetry embellished with few and relatively small ormolu mounts. Whereas the basic form had been established with the Rijksmuseum cabinet it evolved with an increase in the quantity of metal applied to the marquetry and more prominence of ormolu mounts to the façade.

- The earliest known cabinet from this series is now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Formerly attributed to Gole it has now been confirmed as probably Boulle's earliest monumental cabinet, probably executed just after he had established himself at the Louvre. It is entirely decorated in wood marquetry and supported by a stand with a row of column supports.

- The second stage in his development is illustrated by the example at the Wallace Collection, London, which incorporates a small amount of metal in the marquetry, principally in the fleur de lys frieze, lambrequins to the side panels and borders framing the central door. It furthermore abandons the straight legs for figurative supports.
Also part of this group is an unpublished cabinet in a private collection, listed in A. Pradère, French Furniture Makers: The Art of the Ébéniste from Louis XIV to the Revolution, London, 1989, p. 104, no. 108.

- The next group of cabinets, dated to circa 1675-1680 and with further use of metal in the marquetry, is represented by the celebrated examples in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, and the larger of the two cabinets in the collections of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry at Drumlanrig Castle. The cabinets have large wood marquetry panels to the centre of the façades.

- The present cabinet is part of the fourth development stage, dated to circa 1680, showing a more refined sculptural development in both cabinet and stand, with the supporting figures now slightly twisted and the introduction of the spectacular lion's paw mounts flanking the now larger central panel. Another example of this group and the most closely related example to the present cabinet is the second, smaller, cabinet at Drumlanrig. Two further cabinets belonging to this stage survive in the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Musée National du Château de Versailles, however, both have entirely lost their original stands and have been made into side cabinets.

- The series continues with two pairs at the Louvre, dated to circa 1685 and 1690 respectively, embodying the final stage of development in Boulle's cabinets-on-stands (see J.-N. Ronfort, 'The Surviving Cabinets on Stands by André-Charles Boulle and the New Chronology of the Master's Oeuvre', Cleveland Studies in the History of Art, vol. 8, 2003, pp. 44-67).

Much more richly mounted than the preceding examples, the present cabinet and its closest companion at Drumlanrig, are decorated entirely in marquetry of brass, pewter and tortoiseshell, while the central doors and roundels on the side are inlaid with wood marquetry on a tortoiseshell ground - Boulle's most sumptuous and pictorial technique. His introduction here for the first time of the splayed lion paw mount at the base of the breakfront central door confers a unique movement to the composition, a feature which was taken up again by Jean-Henri Riesener a hundred years later on a series of commodes delivered to the Garde Meuble royal in the 1770s. The ormolu-bordered circular marquetry medallions to the sides must have been perceived as equally revolutionary in design.


BOULLE'S SPECIMEN WOOD MARQUETRY

Boulle's earliest success is based on his advanced technique of wood marquetry, then known as bois de rapport. However, contrary to accepted general opinion, he employed fruitwood marquetry throughout most of his career, and not just before 1700. Indeed, in the Acte de Délaisement of 1715, when the ébéniste was already sixty-three years old, the following are recorded:-
Quinze tables de fleurs ou pièces de rapport commencées...1 350l. Sept portes de cabinets de fleurs et de marqueterie en dedans 280 l.
Dix neuf caisses de bois de couleur 200 l.
Environ 25 gros tronons de bois jaune, quelques racines de fresne, 6 demi-bûches d'ébène, 6 demi-bûches de bois rouge ou santal et quelques morceaux de stetin 500 l.
Dix caisses de bois scié en feuilles mêlées comme buis, épine vinette, houx, brésil et autres 300l..
Boulle's great flower compositions - many of which might have been based on Monnoyer's works - in exotic woods on a ground of tortoiseshell remained so famous that the Abbé de Fontenai mentioned these in the 1776 Dictionnaire des Artistes (J.-N. Ronfort, op. cit, p. 45).

When examining the Wrotham cabinet alongside its closest relation, the cabinet at Drumlanrig, it is fascinating to see how Boulle ingeniously articulated and modified the motifs between the two. So while the three wood marquetry panels are almost the same on both cabinets, Boulle introduced something different in each of them. On the side roundels the scrolling foliage twists a different way and the plumed birds' heads on the central door panels are also slightly different. The motif of a bird perched on an oak branch with a butterfly above appears again with slight variations on the sides of the magnificent armoire by Boulle in the Louvre (D. Alcouffe et al., Furniture Collections in the Louvre, Paris, 1993, vol. I, pp. 70-71).


BOULLE'S ORMOLU MOUNTS

Boulle's uneclipsed fame rests upon three principal strands: his extraordinary technical virtuosity as a craftsman (recognized by the Livre Commode des Adresses de Paris of 1691, which stated that Boulle fait des ouvrages de marqueterie d'une beauté singulaire), his innovation in both technique and design, and his brilliance as a sculptor. Indeed, it is the complete sculptural integration of Boulle's distinctive ormolu mounts - so often inspired by classical mythology and even derived from models by sculptors such as Michelangelo and François Girardon - within the confines of case-furniture that most succinctly defines his style. His workshop included no less than six benches for gilding, casting and chasing mounts alone, but with the introduction of the guild system in 1715, Boulle found his combined skills as both cabinet-maker and bronzier in direct contravention of the Guild regulations. Fortunately, his privileged location within the Louvre under the patronage of the King restricted their jurisdiction considerably.

THE ENGLISH PROVENANCE

Acquired in a sale at Oxenhams, London, this cabinet appears in the 'List of Furniture, Porcelain, Paintings & C., purchased by George Byng Esq. for Wrotham Park 1816-43' probably compiled by Byng slightly retrospectively. It records his acquisitions of French furniture, ormolu-mounted porcelain and objects, Sèvres, precious objets d'art and old master pictures and lists for 1828 the acquisition of a large 'Upright German Cabinet inlaid with Brass and Mother of Pearl very richly ornamented with Ormolu 275 guineas 288 15s 0d'.

This description corresponds to this cabinet-on-stand - the centrepiece of Byng's 'Boulle ensemble' in the Drawing Room at Wrotham (as seen in Jane Paris' watercolour of 1840) - except for the mention of the mother-of-pearl, but it is possible that the pewter ground of the sides and interior was mistaken for mother-of-pearl. Certainly the price was higher than any of his other furniture purchases noted in the manuscript except for the coffers and no other cabinet is recorded in the 1847 inventory, in which this cabinet is very clearly described with the coffers, pedestals and candelabra, that also appear in the watercolour. It is very likely that the cabinet had been in England already for some time before the Oxenhams sale in 1828 - especially as the Drumlanrig cabinet was recorded at Dalkeith Palace in 1812 (Inventory & Appraisement of Household Furniture etc at Dalkeith House which belonged to his Grace the late Duke of Buccleuch & Queensberry, taken 10th March 1812, by Alexander Bruce Junior Appraiser, Edinburgh, 'The Gallery: A smaller Do (inlaid cabinet) with Do (figure supports) £18.18': The National Archives of Scotland GD224-962-21-1-90224-962).

In circa 1795-1800 the therm figures of Ceres and Bacchus of the present cabinet, emblematic of summer and autumn, and which still support the stand of the Drumlanrig cabinet, and which also appear on the Wallace cabinet, were replaced by Egyptian monopodia, introducing a neo-classical restraint in place of baroque exuberance. This intelligent and elegantly executed update was evidently carried out for a connoisseur with an interest in both collecting old works of art and commissioning new ones in the most up to date taste. Two possible candidates who during the early 19th century were sophisticated and pioneering collectors of opulent items of furniture incorporating precious materials such as lacquer, pietre dure, ebony or marquetry, were William Beckford and George Watson Taylor. Both commissioned entirely new works of art but also commissioned works re-using those luxurious earlier materials.


TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

The cabinet is beautifully constructed in oak and pine with the drawer-linings largely in walnut. It is decorated with superb marquetry panels in fruitwood, boxwood and tortoiseshell.
When the Egyptian monopodia were introduced the narrow frieze section of the stand was also slightly adapted, largely re-using existing veneers and marquetry.
Probably also in the late 18th century the locks were changed and the cut-outs for bolts repositioned. At this time the cushioned frieze drawers might have been re-veneered, possibly replacing an original band of fleur-de-lys? This is also consistent with the regilded dorure au mat finish of the mounts - a technique employed in the late 18th century.
The rectangular mounts framing the drawers to the upper section are identical to those on the Drumlanrig cabinet although on the Wrotham cabinet the small floral rosettes to the corners and the door were probably replaced.

European Furniture, Decorative Objects & Early Sculpture

• Boulle, Andre-Charles

• Boulle, Andre-Charles
• late 17th Century
• cabinet
• Furniture & Lighting
• cabinets/cupboards
• brass
• pewter
• tortoiseshell
• France
• Louis XIV