Charles-Guillaume Winckelsen 1812-1871 A FINE LOUIS XIV STYLE GILT-BRONZE MOUNTED EBONY, BRASS-INLAID AND TORTOISESHELL BOULLE MARQUETRY FREE STANDING COMMODE PARIS, DATED 1868, AFTER THE CELEBRATED MODEL BY ANDRÉ-CHARLES BOULLE FOR LOUIS XIV, NOW AT THE CHÂTEAU DE VERSAILLES (V901-902)

the top with ebony and Boulle style marquetry above two long drawers,  the front veneered in premiere partie the reverse inlaid in contre partie.  The top has been removed to reveal the mark of Charles Winckelsen / 21 Rue S^{t. Louis / AU MARATS} stamped twice to the top of the carcass and the date 1868.  Both locks stamped by SOUCHET / PARIS.

Meyer, Daniel, Versailles Furniture of the Royal Palace, Volume I, édition Faton, Dijon, 2002, pp.542-557. Pradère, Alexandre, French Furniture Makers, ed. Société Nationale des éditions du Chêne, Paris, 1989, p.72. Kisluk-Grosheide D.O.,Koeppe W. and Rieder W., European Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, ed. Yale University press, New York, 2006, p. 85, pl. 31 for the Jack and Belle Linsky Collection example Petworth House, West Sussex, ed. The National Trust, 1997, p. 30, for the record of a single commode by Boulle in the "carved Room". Dell, Théodore, Furniture in The Frick Collection, ed. Joseph Focarino, New York, 1992 pp.233-246.

Compare a pair of similar commodes, circa 1860, by Charles-Guillaume Winckelsen, sold Sotheby's London, March 16, 1990, lot 159 which sold for £187,000.

The original model of this pair of commodes was made in 1708-09 by André-Charles Boulle for Louis XIV's bed-chamber at the Palais de Trianon, now the Grand Trianon transferred to Versailles in 1932 op. cit. D. Meyer, p. 54. The Trianon commodes proved such great success that it is believed that the Boulle workshop produced at least five other examples based upon descriptions in eighteenth century Paris auction catalogues. op. cit. Dell, p. 244, note 3. The design might have been the work of Gilles-Marie Oppenord, based on a signed drawing in the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York, showing a bureau plat with closely related legs and mounted with female busts. op. cit. Dell, p. 209. According to Watson (Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Furniture, 1956, F.J.B. Watson, pp. xxx-xxxi), André-Charles Boulle himself was an avid collector, frequently in debt to pay for Raphael drawings, which in turn inspired the mounts on his furniture. It is interesting to note that the present commodes have premiere partie inlay on the front and contre partie inlay on the reverse. Three pairs of 19th century commodes of this model exist in public collections: a pair by Fourdinois, the mounts cast by the Denière foundry is at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, France, a pair in the Royal Palace, Madrid, Spain and another by Blake of London, is at the Frick Collection, New York. Note that differences in cabinet construction and metalwork techniques between England and France were documented in Christopher Payne, Nineteenth Century European Furniture, 1981, ed. pp. 297-317.

The impetus for making such high quality copies was due to the dispersal of the French Royal collections during and after the French revolution in 1789. Within a generation after the Revolution, the lavish furniture styles of the preceeding centuries became highly admired and copied. A possible link between the manufactuers of nineteenth century versions seen on the market in the later part of the 20th century and the present lot, is when a single commode, dating to the period of Boulle himself, was shown at the Gore House Exhibition in London in May to July, 1853, mounted by the Board of Trade, Department of Science and Art, sponsored as forerunner to the South Kensington Museum, now known as the Victoria and Albert Museum. This commode, now in the collection of the English National Trust at Petworth House in West Sussex (see illustration above in the present catalogue) was purchased at the Hamilton Palace sale (258) by the picture dealer, P & D Colnaghi at Christie, Manson & Woods, June 17, 1882, lot 994 which sold for £1,081 10 shillings.

WINCKELSEN, CHARLES-GUILLAUME (1812-1871) had his workshops at 23, Val-Sainte-Catherine in 1854. By 1860 he had moved to 21, rue Saint-Louis in the Marais, and in 1867, he relocated his premises to 49, rue de Turenne. His production varied from furniture to decorative works of art, specializing in particular in the Louis XVI style to a very high quality standard.  He had a distinguished clientele, including Lafitte, Behague, the Marquis de Lillers and the Prince Radziwill. Jean-Louis-Benjamin Gros was his main furniture maker, and Joseph-Nicolas Langlois his bronze chaser. Following Winckelsen's death in 1871, Henri Dasson purchased on July 27 the workshop and stock from Winckelsen's widow for 14,000 French francs.