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A LOUIS XV KINGWOOD, TULIPWOOD AND FRUITWOOD MARQUETRY SECRETAIRE A ABATTANT
- ATTRIBUTED TO ROGER VANDERCRUSE, DIT LACROIX, CIRCA 1761-1765

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A LOUIS XV KINGWOOD, TULIPWOOD AND FRUITWOOD MARQUETRY SECRETAIRE A ABATTANT
ATTRIBUTED TO ROGER VANDERCRUSE, DIT LACROIX, CIRCA 1761-1765
Estimate
(Set Currency)
    £20,000 - £30,000
  • ($30,320 - $45,480)

Sale Information

Sale 7900
A View from the Spanish Steps - The Collection of Maria Angiolillo
15 July 2010
London, King Street

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Lot Description

A LOUIS XV KINGWOOD, TULIPWOOD AND FRUITWOOD MARQUETRY SECRETAIRE A ABATTANT
ATTRIBUTED TO ROGER VANDERCRUSE, DIT LACROIX, CIRCA 1761-1765
Inlaid overall with foliate trails and flowerheads, the serpentine rectangular brèche d'Alep marble top above a fall front decorated with ribbon-tied musical attributes, the reverse with a gilt-tooled tan leather writing surface and enclosing a fitted interior with compartments and four drawers, above a pair of doors enclosing a shelf, on squat cabriole legs, stamped 'I.G.' and indistinctly 'I.G..W..C'
45¼ in. (115 cm.) high; 26 in. (66 cm.) wide; 15 in. (38 cm.) deep

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Lot Notes

Roger Vandercruse, dit Lacroix or RVLC, mître in 1755.
Léonard Boudin, maître in 1761.

Although unsigned this secrétaire relates to a distinctive group attributed to Roger Vandercruse (1728-1794) and supplied through the marchand-ébéniste Léonard Boudin (1735-1807). The sculptural curved out-shape and elaborate floral marquetry place this secretaire early in Lacroix's oeuvre. A number of highly similar secretaires are known, including the following particularly noteworthy examples:
- A very closely related secrétaire à abattant, with identical marquetry scheme including the distinctive ribbon-tied musical trophy to the fall-front, possibly the pair to the present lot, unsigned, sold Piasa, Paris, 20 December 2001, lot 88.
- A secrétaire à abattant with floral marquetry stamped by Boudin sold from the collection of Mrs. T. Chrysler Foy, Sotheby Parke-Bernet, 16 May 1959, lot 323 and again from the Estate of Frances Sachar, Sotheby's New York, 25 May 2000, lot 286.
- Two secrétaries, one with a tambour with one with an fall-front, were sold from the collection of Martha Baird Rockefeller, Parke-Bernet Galleries, 23 October 1971, lots 709 & 710, and again Christie's New York, 23 October 2003, lots 666 & 667.
-A secrétaire à abattant with figural chinoiserie marquetry sold from the celebrated collection of Paul Dutasta, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 3-4 June 1926, lot 155 and again anonymously at Sotheby's Monaco, 14 June 1982, lot 399. The Dutasta catalogue describes it as stamped by J. Dubois but it is subsequently described as stamped 'RVLC'(illustrated in C. Roinet, Roger Vandercruse dit Lacroix, Paris, 2000, pp. 58-59 and 116, fig. 20).
Three further closely related secrétaires are now held in Museum collections. One is in the Cleveland Museum of Art, another, formerly in the Polès collection, is in the Musée du Petit Palais, and a final example from the Grog Craven bequest is now in the Louvre.

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