Louis XVI period demi-lune commode

Demi-lune commode veneered with rosewood, kingwood and amaranth. With a slight central projection, it opens with two drawers without a central rail, and three narrow frieze drawers, the sides fitted with a pivoting drawer and a door. It stands on four tapered legs with fluting. Decoration of geometric motifs with stringing, the central part featuring a mythological scene. Decoration of an antique scene on the façade depicting Neptune on a fountain animated with shells, with in the background the Pyramid of Caius Cestius at Ostia – port of Rome. Rich ornamentation of chased and gilt bronze mounts: foliate friezes, water-leaf moldings, branches, ram’s head drops, fluting and asparagus-tip motifs. Striped Campan marble top.
Louis XVI period
Usual restorations
Height: 88 cm – Width: 144 cm – Depth: 58 cm

Our commode is closely comparable to another commode stamped RVLC and bearing a crowned C, presenting the same dimensions and similar decoration, both in the marquetry and the bronzes. It was sold in December 2012 at Drouot by Europ Auction. Ref.: Former SICHEL collection.
The crowned “C” probably points to a French royal commission and an inventory from a royal residence in Germany. This unrecorded mark resembles known French royal marks. We know of two commodes bearing a similar mark: a mahogany commode stamped with the Garde-Meuble Royal mark under the Restoration, and a commode by J. F. Oeben also bearing an inventory number from the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne. To date, only two commodes bear this hot-branded letter and can be identified with the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne through their inventory numbers.
The commode presented here could be the third belonging to the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, had the number not been erased.
Our commode is distinguished by its frieze and apron, as well as by its striped Campan marble, which are richer. Likewise, the gilt bronze frames are more elaborately worked on our commode.

Roger Vandercruse is among the most famous Parisian cabinetmakers of the 18th century.
He was the brother-in-law of Jean-François Oeben and a contemporary of J. F. Leleu and Riesener.
He supplied the same court and Parisian aristocratic clientele. Between 1769 and 1774, he delivered numerous pieces of furniture to the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne.
The masterpieces of RVLC are well represented in museums: Musée du Louvre, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Musée Carnavalet in Paris, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Frick Collection in New York and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu.
Furniture decorated with marquetry scenes inspired by Antiquity is very rare.
One may note the cylinder desk made for Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, executed by Riesener or Leleu.

The influence of engravings by Jean-Laurent Legeay (circa 1710–1786) and of the Fountain of the Four Rivers in Rome, Piazza Navona, may be at the origin of the inspiration of RVLC or of the marchand-mercier’s commission for the execution of the commode presented here.

Of Flemish origin, this son of a journeyman cabinetmaker born in Paris in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine immediately integrated into the community and formed numerous alliances, notably with the cabinetmakers Jean-François Oeben and Jean-Henri Riesener, successive husbands of his elder sister Françoise-Marguerite. He was also a close friend of the dealer Pierre Migeon, to whom he supplied many light pieces of furniture, and of the cabinetmaker Martin Carlin. He supplied dealers such as Poirier and Daguerre. In 1755, following his father’s death, Lacroix decided to take over his father’s workshop on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine. The great quality of his works and a particularly prolific production quickly earned him great renown. From 1769, through his colleague the dealer Gilles Joubert, he was in charge of all court commissions. He thus supplied several pieces of furniture to royal residences, notably to the Comtesse de Provence and Madame Victoire. Within his community, Lacroix held a respected position: juror from 1768 to 1770, then successively syndic and deputy in 1784.
A great specialist in meubles de fantaisie, Lacroix distinguished himself by very homogeneous Louis XV furniture, of great quality and with remarkable marquetry skill. His manner is recognizable by his cross-pattern and quatrefoil marquetry known as “à la reine.” He most often adorned his works with nuanced mosaics and small wooden panels, introducing taste and fantasy into their composition. His early production, during the Louis XV period, evolved with the attributes of the Transition period. At the end of Louis XV’s reign, he was one of the first to create furniture in lemonwood inlaid with ebony. He also devised camaïeu decorations, with floral designs or Chinese subjects. His commodes, almost all of Transition type, most often consist of a rectangular carcass, curved legs, and two main drawers surmounted by three frieze drawers covered with gilt-bronze interlacing. The marquetry is arranged in three panels on the façade framed by gilt-bronze mounts with chamfered square or round corners, with gilt-bronze rosettes. The motifs are most frequently geometric motifs or flower vases. He later produced Louis XVI models of great precision, marked by the arrival of a characteristic motif, the helical rosette. Lacroix specialized, like Topino, in bonheurs-du-jour, which he liked to decorate in the Chinese taste with marquetry of small flower vases or various utensils, derived from motifs found on Chinese screens. The cabinetmaker also produced many small tables for which he used repeated motifs of interlocking circles or lozenges, grids with rosettes or fleurons, or vertical yellow and green striations imitating straw marquetry.
Lacroix ended his activity during the French Revolution, without a son or wife to take over. His workshop was sold after his death.