The commode having three drawers, the first set in the frieze, mounted with panels of ormolu interlace and rosettes above the remaining two drawers.  These doors are inlaid with flower heads and interlacing within a geometrical pattern and set within well-chiselled ormolu frames; an oval medallion containing a marquetry basket of flowers straddles across both drawers. The shaped apron, overlaid with ormolu scrolling acanthus leaf motif and supported on tapering legs decorated with simulated fluting with ormolu toupee feet.  The commode is marked in white paint with the inventory no. from French and Co. 2964 and stamped twice on the top left, and top right, R.Lacroix et JME.

Provenance:

Jacques Seligmann, Paris.

Sale Parke-Bernet, (Sotheby’s NY), 10th April 1942, lot. 184.

Collection of Baron Cassel Von Doorn

Sale  Galerie Charpentier Paris 30th May 1956, lot.119 ( 1.500,000 F ) .

Private collection by descent since 1956.

 

Literature:

P.Kjellberg, Le mobilier francais du XVIIIe siècle, Paris 1998,p.760.

 

Cassel Van Doorn:

Baron Jean-Germain Cassel Van Doorn (1882-1953) was a rich Belgium banker living in Brussels, Paris, Cannes and New Jersey. Being an avid collector he decorated his houses on both sides of the Atlantic with old masters, French 18th Century furniture and objects of art.  Several of his paintings were confiscated by the German army from his villa in Cannes in 1944, although most of them were returned after the war.  On his death his collections formed part of many sales, one in Brussels on 20 and 21st November 1953, seven others in Paris in 1954 and at least one other in 1955 at Parke-Bernet in NY.  Cassel Van Doorn probably bought this commode in 1942 in NY and his widow sold it in 1956 in Paris. 

 

 

Measurements

Dimensions CM Inches
Width: 97 38
Depth: 56 22
Height: 89 35