Offered by Franck Baptiste Paris
A rare pair of curved corner cabinets opening with two doors.
They rest on cabriole legs connected by slightly shaped stretchers.
The entire front features a rich, high-relief decoration in brown and gold lacquer, depicting small islands, a house on stilts, and fishermen in boats, all set against a rare green background.
The vermilion lacquered interior contains two shelves.
Beautiful original gilt bronze mounts, including drops on the uprights and feet.
Oak frame.
Circular stamp C.MACLARD* on the uprights.
Original tops in white marble with gray veining, of the Carrara Arabescato type.
Very good condition, with minor restorations to the lacquer.
Work by a Parisian haberdasher, subcontracted to the cabinetmaker Charles Maclard for the frame and probably to the Martin Brothers workshop for the varnish.
Paris, Louis XV period, circa 1750.
Dimensions:
Height: 100 cm; Width: 56 cm per side; Depth: 55 cm
Provenance:
-Tajan Auction, Paris, June 15, 1984
-Sotheby’s Auction, New York, May 9, 1985
Our corner cabinets are featured on page 585 of the book "Le mobilier français du XVIIIème siècle" by Pierre Kjellberg and on page 57 of the book "Les Secrets de la laque française - Le vernis Martin," the catalog for the 2014 exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.
*Charles Maclard was a French cabinetmaker who became a master in Paris on September 5, 1742.
He worked on Rue du Temple, where he created classic Louis XV-style furniture.
Our opinion:
While a few small objects with a green ground were produced by Parisian varnishers, this is not the case for furniture, which is extremely rare.
The invention of this very rare ground marks the beginning of the emancipation of French technique.
Our corner cabinets retain a purely Japanese decoration and a red interior in keeping with oriental lacquers, but with a new ground, unknown in Asia.
This commission, which must have included other furniture and perhaps even paneling, should be considered as a comprehensive decorating project, similar to the furniture delivered in 1743 by the merchant Thomas Joachim Hébert for the Countess of Mailly's "blue room" at the Château de Choisy.
It's difficult to imagine our corner cabinets in a traditional interior, but rather in a "Chinese cabinet" with woodwork similar to that of the Hôtel du Duc de Richelieu, now housed in the Carnavalet Museum in Paris.
While it's tempting to attribute these pieces to Charles Maclard, this isn't the case. He was certainly a very skilled craftsman, having been admitted as a master cabinetmaker, but he likely acted as a subcontractor, supplying "bare frames" to a furniture merchant who then had them varnished by a workshop. For our corner cabinets, it was probably the workshop of the brothers Guillaume (1689-1749) and Etienne-Simon Martin (1703-1770), who were the most renowned, to the point of lending their names to the technique.
