Offered by Franck Baptiste Provence
)Beautiful and important chest of drawers in solid walnut. Curved on the front and on the sides and opening with two drawers, this so-called "sauteuse" model sports a beautiful Grenoble walnut and admirably displays the great construction precepts of Jean François Hache. A very airy chest of drawers, with "pastille" legs at the front, cut-out at the back, smooth sides to obtain a mirror effect, the absence of pegs or even the choice of very bright wood.
A beautiful tray with a very eventful cutout and black rechamped moldings caps the piece of furniture.
In terms of construction, the frame is made of fir. The lower floor is assembled with grooves and tongues in the front crossmember and the side cleats. The bottoms of the drawers are nailed under the rabbets just like the back bottom which is fixed to the uprights using large wrought iron headed nails. These elements tell us that in accordance with the other furniture of the master, our chest of drawers was assembled starting from the front and ending with the back.
This type of manufacture specific to the Ax dynasty allows aesthetic effects and offers pure and light lines, in particular by obtaining a smooth side, rounded uprights and a particularly thin base. Add to this the absence of traces of ankles replaced by a system of keys which allows a perfect finish, but also the obtaining of an extremely thin front crosspiece for an equal or even superior solidity of the whole.
The pull handles and bronze entries are original.
Very good state of conservation. (a small restoration to a rear toe cap)
Jean François Hache, Grenoble, Louis XV period around 1769-1771.
Dimensions:
Width: 125 cm, Height: 85 cm, Depth: 64 cm
Our opinion :
Jean François Hache as the best cabinetmaker in the province was also one of the most copied, It is therefore important to specify that this chest of drawers is not in the style of, or in the manner of the master, but that it is good to her hand. It bears in the bottom of the top drawer the advertising label No. VII (Fonvieille classification) used by the workshop in the years 1769-1771.
This date, which corresponds to the end of the reign of Louis XV, proves to us that this type of chest of drawers, invented nearly thirty years earlier, was very successful. Other identical chests of drawers, in particular one presented during a 1974 exhibition at the Dauphiné museum and which bears the date 1786, show that these very refined chests of drawers did not experience the disenchantment encountered by the more loaded furniture of the reign of Louis XV.
It should be added that nearly 250 years after it left the workshop on Place de Claveyson, it is still in perfect condition.
The beautiful condition of our chest of drawers, its quality wood and its pure lines are all assets that will delight the most demanding collectors.
Jean Francois Hache (1730-1796)
Born January 10, 1730 in Grenoble, apprenticed to his father Pierre Hache from the age of 16, established on his own from 1754, appointed in 1770, following his father, cabinetmaker to the Duke of Orleans, Jean -François Hache is the heir to a dynasty of cabinetmakers which spans four generations (Noël - Thomas - Pierre) and lasts for almost 150 years. Jean-François is certainly the most famous of all, but shares with his father and grandfather the reputation of the greatest cabinetmaker in the province, considered indeed, even more than the famous Couleru, as capable of competing with the greatest masters. - Parisian cabinetmakers. It is almost established that Jean-François Hache stayed with Jean-François Oeben, the King's cabinetmaker, and the latter would probably even have visited the Haches, very interested in their native wood veneers.
