Regency-period bombe commode with floral marquetry

Regency-period floral marquetry commode with bombé contours
A magnificent Regency-period commode, richly decorated with marquetry and featuring double-curved (bombé) contours on both the front and sides.
The front opens to reveal three rows of drawers featuring geometric decoration that highlights the grain, light, and varied textures—such as burls and figured wood—of the different timber species.
Within the drawer panels, one notes exquisite Italian-style marquetry blending scrolling foliage and arabesques, featuring two reclining therianthropes (human torsos with animal bodies) facing one another.
The top displays a rich decorative scheme of flowers and burl wood set within geometric reserves. The central panel features a refined bouquet of flowers resting on a valanced ledge adorned with tassels, surmounted by a gadrooned canopy.
Delightful small bouquets are set within the oval reserves at the corners. Chimeras, scrolling foliage, and arabesques complete the already lavish decoration of the top.
The broad, curved uprights are embellished with friezes of inverted lily-of-the-valley motifs and terminate in cabriole legs adorned with foliage and simulated sabots, all united by a scalloped apron.
On the sides, the decorative layout is bipartite, consisting of a central panel and a smaller rectangular section positioned beneath the top.
One central panel depicts a woman appearing to curtsy or dance beneath a ribboned canopy. The opposite side features a male dancer in a similar setting, beneath whom appears a monogram composed of two inverted "C"s—possibly the initials of a noble owner or of a couple whose first names share the same initial.
The smaller rectangular section echoes the motif found on the central drawers, enhanced by the addition of scrolling foliage, palmettes, and masks shown in profile. The inventiveness, quality, and richness of this commode's marquetry decoration—both in its composition and in the use of motifs—align with the style of the Grenoble cabinetmaker Thomas Hache (1664–1747).
It features a similar compartmentalization of the top and the same style of framing, as well as closely related decorative elements—such as the canopy design adorning the central panel of the top, the palmettes, gadrooning, masks, chimeras, scrolling foliage, and arabesques.
The drawer construction (using a rabbet joint) and the fir carcass are also characteristic of Thomas Hache’s work.
As the form of this commode—with its exceptionally wide uprights—has not previously been recorded in Hache’s oeuvre, the piece would represent a design of unprecedented architecture, should it be confirmed as his work.

Dimensions: H. 83 cm x W. 126 cm x D. 74 cm

Provenance Château de Ternant
Dauphiné region
Various native wood species (walnut, ash, ash burl, sycamore, elm, barberry...)
Early 18th century