Offered by Antiquités Rigot et Fils
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A delicate bonheur du jour in all-sided marquetry of precious woods, featuring motifs of quatrefoils set within a trellis design.
The stepped upper section opens with two doors. It comprises a shelf and three juxtaposed drawers, one fitted with its original gilt brass inkwell. The lower section includes a fold-out writing surface lined with an old Havana-colored leather, tooled in gilt with small patterns. The frieze below contains a long drawer. When opened, it reveals a central swiveling panel with a mirror on the reverse side, and on each side, a compartment covered by a sliding shelf.
The top is bordered by an openwork gilt brass gallery.
It stands on four tall, tapered square legs.
Our bonheur du jour is adorned with finely executed gilt bronze mounts, including: rings with triglyph motifs, sabots, and keyhole escutcheons.
The corner mounts are rendered in marquetry rather than in gilt bronze. A delicate garland of bellflowers is set within a quadrilateral cartouche.
Stamped Léonard BOUDIN, received Master on March 4, 1761.
Parisian work, Louis XVI period.
Museum quality.
Léonard BOUDIN (1735–1804)
"It is unknown under whom he served his apprenticeship, but it is certain that by 1758 he was working as a cabinetmaker in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. It was there that the cabinetmaker-dealer Pierre II Migeon discovered him and commissioned pieces in floral marquetry and Chinese-style lacquer. These commissions from P. Migeon marked the beginning of a rapid and lucrative career. In 1761, he had the means to obtain his master’s status; he set up shop on rue Saint-Nicolas and soon had to rely on subcontractors to meet the growing demand of his clientele. By 1770, the Almanach Dauphin listed him among the most renowned artisans.
A shrewd businessman and enterprising entrepreneur, he decided to become a marchand-mercier (dealer) and moved his business to rue Fromenteau, in the cloister of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois near the Palais-Royal. Through advertisements and public notices, he announced that in his new boutique one would find ‘all kinds of furniture in the latest taste’; he also sold bronzes, chandeliers, and exotic curiosities.
He had his furniture made by Denizot, Evalde, Gibert, Topino, and Cordié, yet stamped with his own name every piece sold in his shop, so that many items now bear both his stamp and that of the actual maker. Molinier, for example, recounts the story of a pair of Louis XV corner cabinets stamped both J.-P. Latz and L. Boudin — though Latz had died around 1750. It is therefore likely that Boudin acquired these pieces from a dealer and had them restored before applying his own stamp.
L. Boudin was an excellent cabinetmaker, even honored as one of Pierre Migeon’s suppliers. His Louis XV-style pieces are remarkable for the refinement of their marquetry and the delicacy of their bronze mounts, which he arranged with great intelligence and harmony. Count de Salverte rightly wrote that Boudin gave his furniture a ‘light and sprightly appearance.’ In 1791, the Tablettes de la Renommée listed him as a decorator, a profession he continued to practice under the Directory and the Consulate."
Claude Bouzin, Meuble et Artisanat, du XIIIe au XVIIIe siècle, Les Éditions de l’Amateur, Paris, 2003, p.160.
