Property from an Important Private Collection (Lots 56-70)
Auction Closed
May 22, 05:01 PM GMT
Estimate
25,000 - 40,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
the gilt-tooled leather top above a frieze with one central and two side drawers to the front and the back, each central drawer with a mask-form mount of which a portion of the headdress lifts to reveal the keyhole, the frieze and the legs inlaid with tortoiseshell and brass throughout in contre-partie 'Boulle' marquetry, the legs with mask-form mounts to the knees and foliate scroll-form sabots to the feet
81.5cm high, 172cm wide, 115cm deep;
2ft. 8in., 5ft 7 ¾ in.
Private collection, Palm Beach;
Doyle New York, 24th January 2007, lot 1220;
Mallett, London, acquired 2 November 2012.
Mallett, 2007 catalogue, pp.112-115.
Mallett, 2012 catalogue, p.76.
This writing desk (or ‘bureau plat’) is a document of the obsession with the glittering world of pre-Revolutionary France that would enchant collectors throughout the nineteenth century. It dates to around 1830 and was made in England to an exceptionally high standard by a maker who supplied numerous pieces to the king. It is a close copy of a well-documented French model from around 1700 that exudes the grand luxury of the Louis XIV style and is attributed to the great André-Charles Boulle.
The marquetry style of this desk bears the name of its most famous proponent, the ‘Premier ébéniste du Roi’ André-Charles Boulle (1642–1732). Though other contemporary furniture makers incorporated the wildly popular ‘Boulle marquetry’ into their work, the desk on which the present lot is based is attributed to the great Boulle himself on account of a drawing by him that closely matches it.1 Examples of this model of desk from the Louis XIV period include one in Boughton House and another in the Royal collection:2 both of these entered their respective collections in the 1830s, reflecting the shifts in collecting taste among the English aristocracy towards this sumptuous style from France’s golden age.
During the nineteenth century, newly commissioned copies of respected antique pieces often sat alongside the period originals and were highly respected as collectors’ pieces: for instance, Richard Wallace would pay the astronomical sum of £2,500 for a finely executed copy of a Riesener medal cabinet in 1857, an amount worth around £240,000 today.3 The creation of this desk, then, should be interpreted alongside the acquisition of important original pieces, in the context of a new interest in French furniture ultimately spearheaded by George IV. The desk of this model in the Royal Collection, for example, was in all likelihood delivered to Windsor Castle by Morel and Seddon in 1828 as part of Nicholas Morel’s refurbishment of the king’s apartments there,4 and their accounts from 1830 include an entry for a thorough restoration, polish and addition of new parts.5 Similarly, Peter Hughes notes that the Boughton version of this model was “possibly bought by the 5th Duke of Buccleuch from E. H. Baldock in 1832 or 1835”,6 a prominent dealer and furniture maker in French revivalist styles.
Several other examples of early-nineteenth-century desks in this model are documented, including one with provenance from North Mymms Park, Hertfordshire,7 and it is highly likely that this table was created by the London-based cabinet-maker Thomas Parker. Parker promoted himself as “Cabinet & Buhl Manufacturer to HRH the Prince Regent and Royal family” on his trade card,8 and there are indeed at least four pieces in the Royal Collection attributed to him.9 Parker's technique reproduced historical Boulle marquetry with a capable finesse that saw the upper crust of the era’s aristocratic collectors acquire his pieces, placing them in major country houses including Longleat and Woburn Abbey.10
Given Parker's personal proximity to the Royal Collection, it is likely that theirs was the model that he copied to create the present lot, a supposition further strengthened by the fact that the Royal Collection model is the only other example that also features such a large central mount.11 Given that Morel & Seddon's accounts mention interventions to this bureau plat, there is a possibility that the original seventeenth-century mounts for this model were conceived differently.
The masks on the knees of this model are sometimes described as generic satyr masks.12 A more interesting alternative possibility, though, is that they depict Heraclitus and Democritus. A common topos in fine and decorative art, these two Ancient Greek philosophers were often contrasted visually, since the former was known as the ‘weeping philosopher’ and the latter as the ‘laughing philosopher’. This interpretation of our desk’s ornament by Peter Hughes13 is corroborated by the 1732 inventory of Boulle’s moulds after his death, which includes an entry for “a box containing the masks of Heraclitus and of Democritus in various sizes”.14 The same masks can be seen on numerous other Boulle variations of this model, including the one in the Frick collection (1916.5.01).
1 See Musée des Arts Decoratifs, inv. no. 723.B.2. This drawing is also pictured in P. Ramond, André-Charles Boulle: Ebéniste et Marqueteur ordinaire du Roy, Dourdan, 2011, p.177 and J. N. Ronfort (ed), André Charles Boulle: Un nouveau style pour l’Europe, Paris, 2009, p.329, cat. no. 66.
2 For the Boughton House model, see T. Murdoch (ed.), Boughton House The English Versailles, London, 1992, pp.121-122 and 204, fig. 113. For the Royal Collections example, see RCIN 35830. An example formerly belonging to the count of X is illustrated in Louis XIV: Faste et Décors, Paris, 1960, pl.XLI, no.80. One also appeared at auction at Christie’s New York, 30th April 1997, lot 239 ($541,500).
3 see P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Furniture, London, 1996, vol. I, p.32. The £2,500 cabinet in question is now in a private collection, ill. p.33, fig.1. The currency conversion was via the Bank of England’s historical inflation calculator, available at <https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator> [accessed 25th April 2025].
4 H. Roberts, For the King’s Pleasure: The Furnishing and Decoration of George I’s Apartments at Windsor Castle, London, 2001, p.184, entry 409.
5 Ibid., p.182, entry 409.
6 Murdoch (ed.), p.204, fig. 113.
7 Dreweatts, 30th-31st March 2022, lot 401. This model shares the large escutcheon with the present example and is similar in almost every way except for the handles and the marquetry on the legs, which is in contre-partie in the present example.
8 ‘Parker, Thomas (1805–1834)’, in British and Irish Furniture Makers Online (last updated 8th August 2024). Available at: <https://bifmo.furniturehistorysociety.org/entry/parker-thomas-1805-30> [accessed 25th April 2025]
9 See RCIN 21624, RCIN 177, RCIN 35290 and RCIN 33461.
10 See C. Cator, ‘Thomas Parker at Longleat’, in Furniture History, 1997, pp. 225-228 and P. van Duin, ‘Two Pairs of Boulle Caskets on Stands by Thomas Parker’, Furniture History, 1989, p.215.
11 All other examples have a smaller central mount that more closely resembles the Boulle drawing. The accounts mention the “adding [of] sundry new parts to the Buhl work” in 1830 (see fn.4).
12 For instance, the drawing is catalogued as a “projet pour un bureau plat à têtes de satyre” in Ronfort (ed), p.329, cat. 66.
13 Murdoch (ed.), p.121.
14 “Une boeste [sic] contenant les masques d’Héraclite et de Démocrite (124) de différentes grandeurs”, in J-P. Samoyault, André-Charles Boulle et sa famille : nouvelles recherches, nouveaux documents, Geneva, 1979, p.138.
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