A Louis XVI Style Commode à l’Anglaise

Description

A Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Mahogany and Ebonised Commode à l’Anglaise.

The bleu turquin marble top above a frieze fitted with three drawers. The central drawer fronted by gilt-bronzes finely detailed with floral garlands, laurel branches, a flaming torch, arrow quiver and bow. The curved side drawer with scrolling leaf and foliate mounts. The central cupboard door mounted in gilt-bronze with floral swags, and branches creating the ‘MA’ cypher for Queen Marie Antoinette. The interior fitted with a shelf. The convex shaped sides with open marble shelves and mirrored backs.

France, Circa 1870.

This ‘Commode à l’Anglaise’ is so called because it’s form as a console desserte with open side shelves was thought to appeal especially to English collectors. It reprises a pair at the Château de Compiègne which were supplied in 1786 by Guillaume Benneman, who was one of Queen Marie-Antoinette’s preferred ébénistes. That pair were based upon an earlier single example made by Joseph Stöckel in 1786.

In the nineteenth century the prominent ‘MA’ cypher and association with Queen Marie-Antoinette made this commode a most famous model. Accordingly it was reproduced in superb quality by the noted ébénistes of the Belle Époque including Henry Dasson, Alfred Beurdeley et Fils and Henry Dasson. An important pair, dating to the last quarter of the nineteenth century, like the present example, were sold from the collection of the late 6th Earl of Rosebery in the legendary Mentmore Towers auction in May 1977, lot 58.