A fine and rare Louis XV ormolu-mounted bois satiné, amaranth and parquetry commode (commode à palmes croisées et branches de lierre) circa 1740-50, attributed to Charles Cressent

the associated molded, marble top en arbalette with slightly outset forecorners; the case fitted with two long drawers veneered sans traverse, raised on cabriole legs headed by broad scrolled ormolu chutes cast with cabochons, shells, scrolls, pendant husks and foliage, continuing to ormolu paw sabots cast with a cabochon and scrolls; the front and the sides veneered to form trellis parquetry; the top drawer fitted with opposing leaf-cast C-scrolls flanking a cartouche forming the keyhole and continuing to form voluted handles; the lower drawer with bound foliate sprays continuing to tendrils of ivy, the drawers centered by pendant flowerheads; each side fitted with a cupboard door enclosing narrow shelves, veneered and mounted to match the front.



The back of the case with the ink inventory number 494.

Collection of the Earls Cowper, Panshanger, Hertfordshire

Anonymous sale ('Property of a Gentleman'), Christie's, London, June 20, 1985, lot 91

Alexandre Pradère, Charles Cressent, Dijon, 2003, illustrated p. 152, catalogue no. 106, p. 278.

CHARLES CRESSENT

Cressent was unquestionably one of the most highly regarded and representative craftsman of the Régence period.  Furniture during this period was finished with relatively simple veneers, but was fitted with ormolu mounts of increasing sculptural quality, and in this arena, Cressent stood unrivalled.  Having trained and been received as master sculptor in 1719, Cressent was a member of the Academy of Saint-Luc and he started to produce mounts of unprecedented originality and of superb quality.  He was constantly in difficulty with the guild of fondeurs and doreurs because, in contravention of the guild rules, he chased and gilded bronzes in his own workshop.  His defense against this was that this practice enabled him to supervise the quality of the work, and perhaps more importantly, to prevent unauthorized copies being made. 

Cressent's most illustrious client  Philippe duc d'Orléans, was Regent for the infant Louis XV from 1715-1723.  Cressent supplied furniture for the Regent for the Palais Royal, his Paris residence, and for the Château de Saint-Cloud.  Cressent also had important foreign clients, such as Max-Emmanuel the Elector of Bavaria, later Emperor, and King Jean V of Portugal.

COMMODES À PALMES CROISÉES ET BRANCHES DE LIERRE

The present commode belongs to a distinctive group designed by Cressent which is identified in the catalogue raisonné of his work by Alexandre Pradère (op. cit.)  Citing seven other nearly identical examples, Pradère notes Cressent’s predilection for using ivy branches and palm fronds to decorate this richly and distinctively mounted group of commodes. 

A commode now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City bears the C couronné poinçon on the mounts as does a second, formerly in the Wildenstein collection and a third formerly in the Montesquiou collection.  This places the production of this group of commodes to circa 1745-1749.

This group of commodes is stylistically quite closely linked to slightly earlier examples classified as commodes à palmes et fleurs which date c. 1735-1740.  Pradère cites examples which incorporate similar palm fronds on the drawer fronts, and on the legs (rather than the ivy branches found on the present example); they have identical pendant flowerheads centering the drawers and are fitted with doors at each side; one example is in the Musée du Louvre, a second, delivered for the King at the château de la Muette, was formerly in the Gramont collection (Pradère, ibid. pp. 276-277, cat. nos. 97-101).

Another group of only eight, produced in the same time period as the present commode, is classified as commodes à palmes croisées et dragons.  This group incorporates almost identical design elements; some, but not all, have doors at the sides; all have lateral boards separating the drawers, a hallmark of Cressent’s production during this period.

THE EARLS COWPER AT PANSHANGER

Panshanger in Hertfordshire, housed an important collection of paintings largely due to the interests of George Nassau Clavering Cowper, 3^rd Earl Cowper (1738-1789) who was known as a collector and patron of the arts.  He was the descendant of an ancient and illustrious family who started to form his collection as a young man when, in order to complete his education, he was sent to live in Italy with his tutor.  The 3^rd Earl lived for much of his life in Florence where he gained a position of social importance, and indeed he died there in 1789, leaving the title to his son, George who survived his father by only ten years.  George was succeeded by his younger brother, Peter (1778-1837)  who became the 5^th Earl Cowper at the age of 21.

It was the young 5th Earl Cowper who built Panshanger in 1801 in the then "informal picturesque" manner.  It was chiefly known for the magnificent gardens and park designed by Repton.  The picture collection was also justly celebrated - this collection formed by the 3rd and 5th Earls Cowper has been quite well documented.  Little or no archival information has come to light, however, regarding the fine collection of French furniture.  It is tempting to suggest that some, if not most, of the important 18^th century furniture entered the Cowper collections through Anne Florence, Lady Cowper (1806-1880) who married the 6^th Earl Cowper, George Augustus Frederick Cowper.

Lady Cowper was the elder daughter and heiress of Thomas Philip Weddell, (1781-1859); 5^th Baron Lucas, 3^rd Lord Grantham and later, 2^nd Earl de Grey.  He was a celebrated Francophile who, with his wife, Lady de Grey, provided support for the destitute Duchesse de Berri and Duchesse d’Angoulême following the 1830 revolution.  He made numerous trips to Paris in the 1820’s and 1830’s when, like many of his peers, he acquired important pieces of 18^th century French furniture for Newby Hall in Yorkshire which he had inherited from his father.  In 1833 he inherited Wrest Park in Hertfordshire from his aunt, and with it, his title 2^nd Earl de Grey.  The 2^nd Earl de Grey gave Newby Hall to his daughter Anne. 

Wrest Park was inherited by Francis Thomas de Grey, 7^th Earl Cowper on the death of his mother Anne in 1880.  Effectively, therefore, all the properties of the 2^nd Earl de Grey passed to the Cowper family.

Earl de Grey not only acquired furniture in Paris during his visits, but he also made purchases from the London dealer Edward Holmes Baldock who was the most important purveyor of 18^th century French furniture and porcelain at the time.  He bought a number of pieces of Boulle marquetry furniture, many of which have appeared on the international auction market.  It is of particular interest to note two Louis XIV ormolu-mounted ebony Boulle marquetry commodes “en tombeau” by Andre-Charles Boulle: one of which formerly at Newby Hall (illustrated in situ in Country Life) was sold from the Greenberg collection, at Sotheby’s, New York, May 21, 2004, lot 25; a virtually identical example which had been at Panshanger was sold from the collection of Lady Ravensdale, Christie's, London, June 22, 1989, lot 108.

The Panshanger commode had been passed by descent to Lady Ravensdale from her grandmother Lady Desborough (1867-1952) who had inherited Panshanger from her uncle, the 7^th Earl Cowper, in 1905.  Born Ethel Anne Priscilla Grenfell, “Ettie” Lady Desborough, was the daughter and only surviving child of Julian Fane and his wife Lady Adine who was the 6^th Earl Cowper’s daughter; they were both dead before she reached the age of three.  Ettie was brought up at Panshanger and was heir to the estate.  She married William Grenfell of Taplow Court who was created Baron Desborough in 1905 and became one of England’s most brilliant hostesses, and was a leading member of the politically minded intellectuals known as the Souls.  Between the two World Wars the Desboroughs lived in their two great houses, Taplow and Panshanger, and it was at the latter than Lady Desborough died in 1952 having survived her husband by some seven years.

It is not unreasonable, therefore, to suggest that the present commode had been acquired by the 2^nd Earl de Grey, either in Paris, or through Baldock for Newby Hall.  Passing then to his daughter Anne, and ultimately to Panshanger.