COMMODE "EN ARBALETE" Régence/Louis XV, Paris... Lot 1044

COMMODE "EN ARBALETE" Régence/Louis XV, Paris circa 1725/35. In the style of Charles Cressent (1685 Paris 1768). Rosewood, rosewood and violet wood frieze and inlaid with reserves and fillets. Slightly trapezoidal body with protruding front corner studs on a wavy cut frame with short, slightly curved legs. Curved front with three drawers. Gilt bronze fittings and sabots. Multiple profiled "Brèche d'Alep" top. 111 x 59 x 84 cm. Good restored condition. Bronze on the frame apron probably associated. The chest of drawers offered here points to works from the workshop of C. Cressent, similar reduced yet refined marquetry pictures, form language and bronze fittings can be found in his oeuvre. Almost identical bronze handles can be found on a chest of drawers from the M. Meyer collection, Paris. These are illustrated in: A. Pradère, Charles Cressent, Dijon 2003; p. 275 (fig. 91). Similar corner bronzes are found on a writing commode, formerly from the Mercadé Collection, Paris. This is illustrated in ibid; p. 289 (fig. 167). C. Cressent, born in 1685 as the son of the "sculpteur du Roi" François Cressent, first worked in his father's studio. Already as a young apprentice he made contact with G. Oppenordt, who was the "premier architecte" of the Duc d'Orléans. 1710-1714 C. Cressent worked for Girardon and Lorrain and received the title "maître sculpteur" from the Académie St. Luc in 1714. He created high-quality furniture for the nobility of the French metropolis. Cressent's clientele included the Marquis de Marigny, the Duc de Richelieu, important collectors such as Marcellin de Selle, Bounier de la Mosson, Brozat, Julienne, Blondel de la Gagny, King Joao V of Portugal and members of the Bavarian court, for whom he supplied furniture backed by sources. In the years 1720/40, Cressent and his competitor A. Gaudreaux defined the "style Régence", characterized by an elegant, curved and majestic design and high-quality, varied and hitherto unknown bronze ornamentation. As a "sculpteur", Cressent partly produced his own bronzes, which led to various lawsuits against the "corporation des fondeurs, ciseleurs et doreurs", which accused him of violating the applicable guild law.