*EXCEPTIONAL FLAT DESK OF THE MASTER WITH PAGODAS
Double stamp of Jacques-Laurent COSSON (1737-1812), master in 1765, who probably restored this piece of furniture at the end of the 18th century (Fig. 1 and 2).
Partly Louis XV period for the box.
Inlaid with rosewood veneer and remarkable chased bronze
remarkable decoration of chased and gilded bronzes.
H. 79 cm W. 196 cm D. 97 cm
The handle of the right drawer is detached.
Three keys.
It opens with three drawers. The top is entirely covered
with a brown leather maroquin, reported, going up to the
the lingotiere. The drawers in mahogany were made in England
The mahogany drawers were made in England, as well as the double bolt locks in the 19th century.
The Chinese decoration with the pagodas of the bronzes
extraordinary :
- in fall: bust of Chinese dignitary in
in ceremonial dress and frontal view
- in astragal: flowery stem, decorating two sides
cambered feet.
- in hoof : foliage decoration with acanthus base.
- on the side : important rocaille cartouche
with flower and flowering branches
On each length :
- in the center of the belt : an open pagoda
with a double roof, placed on a flowered mound and
flanked by a flowering branch.
- On the two drawers' crosses : a Chinese woman in
bust emerging from a pattern of flowering branches
branches.
- Handles of the drawers and their screw: branching
on a mound treated in the European style.
- Lingotière and surrounding drawers and their
screws: bronze rod with a frieze of grapes
of ovals.
The Master with the pagodas:
The production of the Master with the pagodas, so called by
Alexandre Pradère because of his work composed of chests of drawers and
commodes and flat desks decorated with bronze trimmings
with large Chinese figures and faun heads.
Until the discovery by Christie's of the stamp N.G.,
found under the frame of the chest of drawers belonging to Miss
Joan Cummings (Christie's sale - New-York, May 21, 1996,
lot n° 238), several hypotheses had been put forward including a
production of the sons of André-Charles Boulle.
For several years, the stamp N.G. has been attributed to
Noël Gérard (? - 1732), a cabinetmaker whose workshop included seven
workbenches and whose stock was sold by his widow Marguerite
in 1749.
Provenance :
- Mentmore, estate of the 6th
Duke of Rosebery and his family. Sale
Sotheby's Parke Bennet & Co. 18, 19 and 20 May 1977. Catalog
Mentmore sale catalogue, Volume one, Furniture, Lot N°86, page 74.
This desk was installed in the billiard room as evidenced by the handwritten
the handwritten label under the desk: "Billiard room
(Fig.3).
The Master with Pagodas:
The production of the Maître aux pagodes, so named by
by Alexandre Pradère because of his work composed of
chests of drawers and flat desks decorated with bronze trimmings
with large Chinese figures and faun heads.
Until the discovery by Christie's of the stamp N.G.,
found under the frame of the chest of drawers belonging to Miss
Joan Cummings (Christie's sale - New-York, May 21, 1996,
lot n° 238), several hypotheses had been put forward, including a
production of the sons of André-Charles Boulle.
For several years, the stamp N.G. has been attributed to
Noël Gérard (? - 1732), a cabinetmaker whose workshop included seven
workbenches and whose stock was sold by his widow Marguerite
in 1749.
References :
- Flat desk attributed to the "Master of the Pagodas"
(active in Paris around 1730) - [], Kohn sale of 19 March 2018.
- An identical desk appears on an interior view of the
of the castle of Lednice in Czechoslovakia dating from 1845
(The Great Houses of Central Europe, P. 135).
- L'Estampille/L'objet d'art Hors-série N° 286, December 1994:
"This desk is an illustration of this truth in the history
of the decorative arts according to which one discovers the evolution of
taste of the customers throughout an epoch through the modications
that they made undergo to the works.
Bernard Tapie is passionate about this exceptional object, the work of the Master of the
as Alexandre Pradère has shown, and which came from the Rothschild
from the Rothschild Collections. This desk had falls
of pagodas. Bernard Tapie, not very sensitive to this chinoiserie,
had these bronzes replaced by falls of an authentically French model.
authentic French model. Created in 1730, this desk has undergone
several transformations. Restored for the first time by
Cosson, whose stamp it bears, it had crossed the Channel to furnish
to furnish the castle of Mentmore. There, the Rothschilds
the Rothschilds had modelled it in their own taste: recourse
to solid mahogany to ennoble the firing
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