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Louis XVI style Secrétaire à abattant with marquetry after Roentgen
$57,643.06
£42,693.33
€48,000
CA$78,852.83
A$85,816.11
CHF 45,491.04
MX$1,032,433.37
NOK 576,972.47
SEK 527,889.40
DKK 365,768.29
About the Item
Louis XVI style ‘Secrétaire à abattant’ with marquetry after Roentgen.
Oak, thuya burl and ebonized pearwood veneer, wood marquetry, gilt bronze, green ‘Campan’ marble.
France.
ca. 1880.
142×68×40 cm (55.9×26.8×15.7 in).
The façade of this late nineteenth-century ‘secrétaire à abattant’ is largely dominated by its exceptional ‘Commedia dell’Arte’ piece of marquetry à la mosaïque, imitating closely that of David Roentgen’s most famous commodes. One such commode, once considered the most expensive piece of furniture in the world, is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York ; another, of identical conception, is preserved at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Their central marquetry motif, depicting Harlequin and Anselmo, was designed by the painter Januarius Zick and executed in Roentgen’s unique technique, which rejected the conventional use of scorching or engraving in favour of imagery composed entirely from individually cut and stained pieces of wood. The working drawings for these intricate compositions were prepared by the engraver Élie Gervais. The sophisticated marquetry of the present ‘secrétaire’, extending over the sides with elaborate trophies of musical instruments, reproduces with remarkable precision this *mosaïque* process perfected in Roentgen’s Neuwied workshop during the 1770s.
The overall form of the piece follows that of Adam Weisweiler, whose work balanced the strict geometry of the Louis XVI style with the sumptuous materials favoured by the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre. As in Weisweiler’s masterpieces combining Japanese lacquer, pietra dura, or porcelain plaques, the present ‘secrétaire’ achieves an elegant harmony between architectural clarity and luxurious ornament. It rests on conically tapering legs and *pieds toupies* typical of Weisweiler’s manner, joined by crossed stretchers centring a magnificent gilt-bronze vase, an architectural feature both decorative and structural. The fall-front, framed by finely chased ormolu, opens to reveal a dark leather writing surface above four drawers and open compartments. The upper cornice conceals a push-to-open drawer beneath an overhanging marble top of green-and-white ‘Campan’ marble, bordered by a gilt-bronze balustrade gallery.
Though unstamped, this ‘secrétaire’ can be attributed to Alfred-Emmanuel-Louis Beurdeley. A drawing for the ‘angle supérieur d’un secrétaire’, preserved at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, shows a closely related gilt-bronze balustrade identical to that crowning the present piece. Beurdeley, who succeeded his father Louis-Auguste-Alfred Beurdeley at 20–24 rue Dautancourt, specialized in reproducing eighteenth-century models with exceptional technical accuracy, often using drawings from the ‘Garde-Meuble national’ and his own archive of models. Beurdeley also excelled in the rendition and imitation of 18th century marquetry, for example after those of the Scandinavian Pierre-Harry Mewesen, which gives even more weight to this attribution.
Two other names come to mind, those of the celebrated Henry Dasson, for the quality of the bronzes for which Dasson earned the somewhat exaggerated moniker of the ‘nineteenth century Benvenuto Cellini‘, and of Charles-Guillaume Winckelsen, to whom a few ‘secrétaires’, gone under the hammer, with similar gilt bronze ‘balustrade’, have been attributed, although Ledoux-Lebard cites no ‘secrétaire’ under the name Winckelsen. The least prestigious of the three, and although not the most likely, an attribution to Winckelsen would date this ‘secrétaire’ desk to at least the late 1860s, or even the 1850s. But whether the ‘secrétaire’ is attributed to Winckelsen or Dasson is of little importance, since it was to Dasson that Winckelsen’s widow sold her late husband’s workshop, including models and drawings, upon his death in 1871.
The piece, therefore, belongs securely within the circle of Beurdeley, with stylistic parallels to Dasson and Winckelsen. Its design combines the structural vocabulary of Weisweiler with the marquetry idiom of Roentgen, representing the synthesis of two eighteenth-century traditions as interpreted by the foremost Parisian ‘ébénistes’ of the late nineteenth century. Exceptional condition. Minor chip on the marble. One key.
- Similar to:David Roentgen (Cabinetmaker)
- Dimensions:Height: 56 in (142.24 cm)Width: 26.8 in (68.08 cm)Depth: 15.7 in (39.88 cm)
- Style:Louis XVI (In the Style Of)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:ca. 1880
- Condition:Repaired. Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:PARIS, FR
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU10630246924202
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