Offered by Galerie Leroy
Transition period cabinet, opening at the front with three drawers, the upper drawer forming a fall-front fitted with its original tawny-coloured leather, revealing four small interior drawers.
The drawers, with their original locks, all close with a key.
In satinwood marquetry framed with Greek-key fillets and rosewood borders.
It is topped with its original rouge royal marble with cavetto moulding, formerly restored but authentic.
The piece stands on small cabriole legs ending in gilt-bronze sabots.
The rounded uprights are decorated with simulated fluted marquetry.
Stamped G. CORDIÉ + JME on the upright.
Dimensions: 65 cm wide, 43 cm deep, 98 cm high.
Guillaume Cordié (1725–1785)
Ébéniste, maître on 18 June 1766. He worked on rue de Charonne until his death.
Most of his works belong to the Transition style between Louis XV and Louis XVI.
Guillaume Cordié first worked as a free craftsman before obtaining his master’s title in 1766. He established himself on rue de Charonne, where he remained until his death. His creations, of fine quality and harmonious proportions, were mainly in the Transition and Louis XV styles.
He specialised above all in small furniture: dressing tables (sometimes heart-shaped), writing tables, but above all Cordié was unquestionably the master of the bonheur-du-jour.
These small desks, often in rosewood veneer, featured an upper body closed by sliding doors and two small drawers set within a cased apron. A fold-out top would form the writing surface.
The elegant cabriole legs of his pieces gave them grace and refinement.
He also produced a few Transition style commodes, in rosewood veneer arranged in butterfly wings, or with marquetry of cubes and quatrefoil motifs.
After his death, his widow continued the workshop on rue de Charonne until the Revolution.
