Commode, French (Paris), ca. 1774. Marquetry on a carcase of oak; gilt-bronze mounts and marble slab

Carcase of oak, with marquetry of tulipwood, kingwood, and other woods. The serpentine front is decorated with three panels, filled in with a trellis pattern having ormolu rosettes at the points of intersection. The panels are outlined by ormolu borders with incurved corners filled in with rosettes. The curved sides are ornamented with similar panels. At the front corners are terminal figures in ormolu of Cupid and Psyche, the former holding a dove and the latter a bunch of flowers. Each of the two drawers has two ormolu handles, and below the centre panel is a group in the same metal consisting of a reclining female figure between two children, one offering her a wreath and the other holding a dove. The top is of variegated red griotte marble, and the whole is supported on four curved legs with ormolu mounts.

Bequeathed by Mrs Lyne Stephens, Paris

This commode has a fully documented royal provenance. Painted on the back are two inventory numbers allocated by the Garde-Meuble (the administrative body in charge of furnishing the royal residences) which represent two generations of numbering systems. The earlier number, 2767, can be traced in the Journal de la Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, a register recording the delivery of new furniture. It gives a detailed description of the commode and also states that the piece was delivered by the royal cabinet-maker, Jean-Henri Riesener (1734-1806), on June 1774 for the use in the bedroom of Madame Adeläide, one of the daughters of Louis XV, at Marly, near Versailles (P. Verlet, p. 120, see References). The record of the delivery is misleading, however, as it suggests that the commode came from Riesener's workshop. It is now believed that the commode was made by his predecessor Gilles Joubert, Riesener having replaced him in June 1774, the very month in which this commode was delivered. Riesener may have been delivering a piece for which Joubert had organised the production (P. Verlet, pp. 120-121, see References).

This kind of trellis marquetry, highlighted with gilt-metal studs, was favoured by Joubert. A commode with similar decoration, supplied in 1773 by Joubert, is in the collections of the Duke of Roxburgh at Floors Castle Roxburghshire, Scotland. It also appears on another piece in the V&A collections (W.17-1970), a secretaire supplied to the royal household in June 1774.

The trellis-pattern marquetry of this commode, studded with gilt-bronze rosettes, and the finely-sculpted and chased infant triton corner mounts, appear on a numberof other pieces delivered to the royal household by Joubert. The precise extent of Joubert's involvement in this piece, as the other pieces delivered for the royal household, is difficult to determine. They were delivered when mainly between 1769 and 1774, when Joubert was over 80 years old.

Attribution note: Although the production of fully-fledged neoclassical furniture had become well established in Paris by the 1760s, it is not unusual to find commodes in the transitional style, like this one, dating from the first half of the 1770s. It has a curviliniar, Rococo plan and cabriole legs, but the front and side elevations, composed of essentially rectangular frames enclosing the geometric marquetry, belong to the rectiliniarity of neo-classicism (S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France , p. 78, see References.)

This commode, or chest of drawers, was made in 1774 for Marly, a palace outside Paris near Versailles, for use in the bedroom of Mme Adelaïde, one of the daughters of Louis XV (1723-1774), King of France. It was probably made by the workshop of the royal cabinet-maker Gilles Joubert (1689-1775), although the exact extent of Joubert's involvement is not clear (he was over 80 years old in 1774). It was sent to Marly by his successor as royal cabinet-maker, Jean-Henri Riesener (1734-1806). The commode's curved legs and outline, combined with the geometric pattering of the marquetry (shaped decorative pieces of wood applied as a veneer) and classically-inspired gilt-bronze mounts, reflect the transitional phase that divides the elegant and highly decorative Rococo manner from the anti-Rococo, more sober Neo-classical style that followed it.

464:1 to 3-1895