拍品专文
This commode's brass-veneered top is richly inlaid with tortoiseshell in the Louis XIV 'antique' or 'arabesque' manner, and centers a motif depicting the birth of Venus, with her cloak billowing behind her. This vignette is is closely derived from an engraving published by Jean Bérain (1640 - 1711), Dessinateur de la Chambre et du Cabinet du Roi in his Grotesques, and occurs on a number of Boulle marquetry commodes, most notably a commode in première partie Boulle marquetry in the Wallace Collection, illustrated along with the Berain drawing in P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Furniture, vol. II, London, 1996, pp. 639 - 640. Interestingly, the Wallace Collection commode shares the same trailing mask-headed floral angle mounts as the present lot as well. Another commode, also in prèmiere partie marquetry, however using red tortoiseshell and employing the same marquetry panels overall, as well as the same angle mounts, was sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 7 December 1995, lot 49. This same marquetry top panel is found on other Boulle marquetry commodes, including a bombé example sold Paris, Drouot, 19 April 1991, and it is furthermore found on the top of a bureau mazarin, sold Palais Galliera, Paris, 22 March 1977. The recurrence of marquetry panels is fairly common for Boulle marquetry pieces of this period and is generally not sufficient to attribute a piece to a particular workshop. (For further information on Boulle marquetry workshops in the early 18th Century see P. Grand, "Le Mobilier Boulle et les ateliers de l'epoque", L'Estampille /L'Objet d'Art, February 1993, pp. 48 - 70).
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