A PAIR OF LOUIS XIV WALNUT, BOXWOOD, SYCAMORE, FRUITWOOD AND SCAGLIOLA MARQUETRY PANELS BY THOMAS HACHE, GRENOBLE, LATE 17TH CENTURY

Thomas Hache (1644-1747) was part of the most important dynasty of cabinetmakers working in Ancien Régime France outside of Paris. His workshop in Grenoble specialised in creating virtuoso inlaid surfaces using almost exclusively native Alpine woods and burr woods, the designs heavily influenced by the fashionable floral marquetry of the 17th century practised by Parisian ébénistes such as the Dutch-born Pierre Gole, in whose atelier Thomas Hache is believed to have trained. Under the influence of nearby Italy, however, Hache innovated by incorporating brightly blue or green-coloured scagliola inlay, seen to dazzling effect in the present lot.

These panels emanate from an important group of armoires by Thomas Hache, each with comparable marquetry decoration, several of which are illustrated in P. et F. Rouge, Le génie des Hache (Dijon 2005), p.72-97, including an Armoire aux Masques (no.10, p.94) with identical leaf-sprouting grotesque masks in the lower section. Further related examples were sold Marc-Arthur Kohn, Paris, 11 December 2017, lot 20; L'Hôtel des Ventes de Monte-Carlo, 8 April 2017, lot 33 and 28 June 2015, lot 48; and Daguerre, Drouot Paris, 20 June 2014, lot 157.