A very fine gilt-bronze-mounted tulipwood, kingwood and bois de bout marquetry bureau plat attributed to B.V.R.B. known as Bernard Vanrisamburgh Louis XV, mid 18th century

with a serpentine gilt-bronze-banded top with an inset tooled leather writing surface, with rocaille and scrolled clasps at each corner above three frieze drawers opposing dummy drawers inlaid with scrolling foliage with bois de bout marquetry, with similarly inlaid sides, on cabriole legs terminating in gilt-bronze scrolled feet, the whole with gilt-bronze rocaille scroll and acanthus leaf cast mounts

Probably with Sami Chalom, circa 1965-1968 in Paris
Formerly in the Wrightsman Collection (see Literature)
Sold Sotheby's New York, lot 365, 13th-15th October 1983
Partridge Fine Arts Ltd., London until 26th March 1984

 

F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, Vol. II, Metropolitan Museum of Art., New York, 1966, cat. 147, illustrated.

Comparative Literature:
Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook, 1991, p. 112.
Jean Nicolay, L’Art et la Manière des Maîtres Ebénistes Français du XVIIIe Siècle,  Paris, 1956, p. 84, fig. E, for a similar desk.
Hugh Honour, `Cabinet Makers and Furniture Designers, 1969, p. 105.
Pierre Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris : Les éditions de l’amateur, 1998 p. 127-139.
W. Rieder, `BVRB at the Metropolitan,' Apollo, January 1994, p. 33, fig.1.
Comte François de Salverte, Les Ebénistes du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris,  1962, p. 43-44.

This elegant bureau plat, although not stamped, is unquestionably by Bernard Vanrisamburgh as it shows all the characteristics of this ébéniste with its floral tulipwood veneers enclosed within a kingwood frame. The elaborately cast and finely chased gilt-bronze mounts also bear his signature with triangular shaped key-holes, the foliate escutcheons incorporating handles and the fluid side mounts.

Further examples of bureau plat with bois de bout marquetry and similar mounts by B.V.R.B., are as follows:

-one in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (Accession no. 1975-356-186) and illustrated  by Y. Hackenbroch and J. Parker "The Leslie and Emma Schaefer Collection, a Selective Presentation', 1975, no. 7 and illustrated by W. Rieder, op. cit., p. 33. It has identical gilt-bronze mounts flanking the central drawer.

-one stamped B.V.R.B. with identical mounts seprating the drawers was sold as lot 107 in the sale of the Collection of Mr and Mrs. Alfonso Landa, Sotheby's Parke Bernet, New York, 7th May 1977.

-a smaller one stamped BVRB , sold as lot 108 at Christie’s, London, on 7^th December 1995, from the Porges collection (£350,000). It has identical escutcheons, frieze mounts but different knee and side mounts. The knee mounts are elaborately cast with flowers and are not found on any other pieces by B.V.R.B., unlike the purely rocaille and scroll cast mounts on the offered bureau plat.

-one stamped B.V.R.B. sold as lot 243, Sotheby's, Monaco, 3rd March 1990, (4,440,000FF) stated reputedly to have been sold by King Umberto of Italy. It has identical frieze, handle and side mounts to those on this bureau plat, although the knee mounts differ, reproduced here in fig. 1.

-one illustrated by J. Nicolay, op. cit., p. 84, fig. E,  which has identical frieze and escutcheon mounts but different corner mounts.

-one in the Cleveland Museum of Art (inv. 44123), illustrated in the Handbook, op. cit., p. 112. 

Bernard Vanrisamburgh:
He was the son of a Dutch ébéniste who settled in Paris around 1694 on the Rue du Faubourg St Antoine and received his maîtrise in 1720. In Paris he appears to have worked almost exclusively for the marchand-merciers notably Hébert, Duvaux and Poirier, through whom his furniture was supplied to Louis XV, Mme de Pompadour, the Prince de Condé together with the German courts and aristocracy. After 1740 B.V.R.B. revived the art of floral marquetry, which had gone out of fashion in France some forty years before and through Hébert a number of pieces with floral marquetry were delivered to the Garde-Meuble Royale. Another of B.V.R.B.’s specialities were some outstanding lacquered pieces, the first of which was a commode for Maria Leszczynska’s cabinet at Fontainebleau which was delivered by Hébert in 1737. From 1738 he took up the family workshop after the death of his father.