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Mathieu Befort Jeune
A Pair of French Gilt-Bronze Mounted Ebonised Meubles d’Appui
£95,000
A pair of French gilt-bronze mounted and ebonised meubles d'appui, by Mathieu Béfort dit Béfort Jeune. Each has a vert maurin marble top above a cupboard...
Dimensions
Height: 115 cm (46 in)Width: 83 cm (33 in)
Depth: 42 cm (17 in)
PrintDescription
A pair of French gilt-bronze mounted and ebonised meubles d’appui, by Mathieu Béfort dit Béfort Jeune.
Each has a vert maurin marble top above a cupboard door applied with large oval gilt-bronze medallions depicting Hercules and Orpheus, opening to an interior fitted with an adjustable shelf, each twice stamped ‘BEFORT JEUNE’, and mounts marked ‘BJ’
French, Circa 1850.
The two gilt-bronze oval medallions represent Orpheus in Hades and Hercules Chaining Cerberus, after a design attributed to Augustin Pajou (1730–1809). The pair are of a type recorded decorating a single cabinet at the Hôtel de Voyer d’Argenson as drawn by Sir William Chambers in 1769.
A cabinet with related bronze medallions after Augustin Pajou (1730–1809), at the Hôtel de Voyer d’Argenson, drawn by Sir William Chambers in 1769. Illustrated in J. Harris, ‘Sir Williams Chambers and his Parisian Album’, p. 60, fig. 7.
Date
Circa 1850
Origin
France
Medium
Eboinised Wood & Gilt-Bronze
Signature
Stamped twice 'BEFORT JEUNE' | the mounts marked 'BJ'.
J. Draper, G. Scherf, Pajou sculpteur du Roi 1730-1809, cat. exp., Paris & New York, 1998, p. 164-165, fig. 100.
J. Harris, ‘Sir Williams Chambers and his Parisian Album’, dans Architectural History. The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, t. 6, 1963, pp. 54-90, p. 60, fig. 7
