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拍品专文
The term of Bureau Mazarin probably refers to a type of bureau that was first commissioned by Cardinal Mazarin and executed by Pierre Gole (circa 1620 - 1684) for Louis XIV. Mazarin never possessed such a bureau in his collections. Bureaux mazarins were inlaid either with floral marquetry, with a combination of naturalistic flowers and acanthus scrolls, or with Boulle marquetry in première or contre-partie. Early works of André-Charles Boulle were however executed in floral marquetry.
The top, designed in the Louis XIV 'antique' or 'Roman' style, depicts a central flower-filled urn amidst a collection of classical figures, birds, butterflies and floral sprays. The acanthus and rinceau scroll borders derive from arabesque foliage patterns, such as those published by Paul Androuet Du Cerceau in his Livre d'Ornemens de feuillage, circa 1650, while the naturalism of the flowers relates to the work of the flower artist Blain de Fontenay (d. 1715).
A related bureau, of similar form and decoration in the collection of M. Maurice Chalom is illustrated in the exhibition catalogue Louis XIV from the Musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris, May - October 1960, pl. XXXII, fig. 75. A superbly naturalistically rendered marquetry panel of similar composition, from whence the design panel of the top of this bureau mazarin is partly derived, is on a table by André-Charles Boulle from the Wildenstein Ojjeh Collection, sold Sotheby's Monaco, 26 June 1979, lot 132 (A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes Français de Louis XIV a la Révolution, Paris, 1989, p. 98). Another bureau of similar proportion and ornamentation was sold from the Estate of the 17th Earl of Perth, Christie's, London, 11 December 2003, lot 118.
The top, designed in the Louis XIV 'antique' or 'Roman' style, depicts a central flower-filled urn amidst a collection of classical figures, birds, butterflies and floral sprays. The acanthus and rinceau scroll borders derive from arabesque foliage patterns, such as those published by Paul Androuet Du Cerceau in his Livre d'Ornemens de feuillage, circa 1650, while the naturalism of the flowers relates to the work of the flower artist Blain de Fontenay (d. 1715).
A related bureau, of similar form and decoration in the collection of M. Maurice Chalom is illustrated in the exhibition catalogue Louis XIV from the Musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris, May - October 1960, pl. XXXII, fig. 75. A superbly naturalistically rendered marquetry panel of similar composition, from whence the design panel of the top of this bureau mazarin is partly derived, is on a table by André-Charles Boulle from the Wildenstein Ojjeh Collection, sold Sotheby's Monaco, 26 June 1979, lot 132 (A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes Français de Louis XIV a la Révolution, Paris, 1989, p. 98). Another bureau of similar proportion and ornamentation was sold from the Estate of the 17th Earl of Perth, Christie's, London, 11 December 2003, lot 118.