Offered by Antiquités Philippe Glédel
18th Furniture, country french furniture
Regency style wedding cabinet in cherry wood with double arched cornice signed J.B. DEPOUEZ and dated 1796.
Work of the Country of Rennes, by Jean-Baptiste Depouez, of the end of the XVIIIth century.
There are relatively many cabinets from Rennes of all kinds, as the carpenters who worked in the Rennes area were numerous (not all of them truly professional, but for many simple amateurs who produced at lower cost). In truth, there were less than ten sculptors per generation who alone produced the most dazzling models... Jean-Baptiste Depouez is one of them, and of the first generation.
We are dealing here with a very rich model, at the transition of the two periods, adopting the Regency style in the forms and the cuts, but keeping the repertoire "à la Bérain" of the previous period.
The sculpted ornamentation is very varied: cartouches, culottes, imbricated acanthus leaves, fleurons, rosettes, flowered wreaths, love links, lambrequins adorned with campanes, arabesques, shells, busts of phoenixes, fleurdelisé scrolls, C and S motifs punctuated with crossettes, stretched palmettes, festoons and scrolls of flowers and foliage, tassels, pleated ribbons, wolf's teeth, embossed motifs, mosaic backdrops, volutes. ..
The cherry wood was well chosen for the quality of its grain, fine with short and tight fibers (easier to work and giving a beautiful polish to the notch of a perfectly sharpened chisel that left few traces outside the patterns). Its use has not been spared but on the contrary it is major in the construction of the cabinet (the chestnut, wood of second use, is here reserved only for a part of fonçures) and in thick sections (as such, the weight of the piece of furniture is amazing / more than 150 kg)
The molding is as generous as it is deep, the carving well developed and clear, the patterns perfectly drawn, without clashes or breaks in the line.
One can particularly admire on this cabinet :
- The rare panelled projection located at the corner of the cornice.
- The quality of the design and sculpture of the three panels, all equally successful.
- The sculpted entablature that runs along the vertical jambs and continues without constraint of the assemblies on the horizontal crosspieces, encircling the doors, and still underlined by powerful quarter round moldings.
Assembly of the frame with tenons, mortises and dowels, frames and shelves in chestnut and cherry wood
chestnut and cherry wood, two old interior drawers in cherry wood with secret trapdoor.
Beautiful iron lock entries and openwork with rooster heads,
two thick hinges per door.
Nice key with its big iron lock, all original.
Very nice original condition of the whole, healthy piece of furniture with few traces of xylophagous.
Has been the object of an absolutely complete restoration and a particularly meticulous cleaning and waxing (every cm² inspected, without worrying about the past time). We believe we are entitled to point this out when cutter blades and surgeon's lancets are part of the small accessories of the workshop.
From a castle near Rennes.
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