Charles Cressent
A Louis XV Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Bureau Plat
£28,000
A Louis XV Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Bureau Plat In The Manner of Charles Cressent. This fine bureau plat has a leather top framed by gilt-bronze borders...
Dimensions
Height: 76 cm (30 in)Width: 152 cm (60 in)
Depth: 81 cm (32 in)
Description
A Louis XV Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Bureau Plat In The Manner of Charles Cressent.
This fine bureau plat has a leather top framed by gilt-bronze borders above a frieze fitted with a central drawer to the front and shaped drawers to each side. The desk is raised on cabriole legs headed by acanthus cast mounts and terminating in scrolling foliate sabots.
French, Circa 1890.
Date
Circa 1890
Origin
France
Medium
Gilt-Bronze
Charles Cressent (1685-1768) was a French leading ébéniste and sculptor of the late Régence and early Rococo periods, becoming a master sculptor in 1719. He worked as both ébéniste and sculptor to the Regent, Philippe II, Duc d’Orléans. His furniture was often decorated with plain veneers, usually of satinwood and amaranth, or veneers in patterns of parquetry.
Cressent was best known for the highly sculptural gilt bronze mounts that ornamented his furniture. In order to supervise production and guarantee the quality of his mounts, he employed master casters and gilders in his workshop. This practice broke the strict rules of the French guild system, and the guild prosecuted him for practicing the two professions of cabinet making and gilding in the same workshop. In order to pay the resulting fines, Cressent was forced to hold sales of his stock. The catalogues from these auctions, which he wrote himself, provide important evidence to identify his works, as Cressent’s furniture was always unsigned.