A Louis XV Gilt-Bronze Mounted Kingwood, Tulipwood and Marquetry Cylinder Desk by Roussel, Circa 176

A Louis XV Gilt-Bronze Mounted Kingwood, Tulipwood and Marquetry Cylinder Desk by Roussel, Circa 1760

the legs detachable for transport; stamped P.ROUSSEL and twice JME

height 39 in.; width 28 ½ in.; depth 22 ½ in.

99 cm; 72.3 cm; 57.1 cm

Pierre Roussel (1723-1782), maître in 1745
Provenance
Bernard Steinitz, Paris
Catalogue note
The distinctive marquetry on the rolltop, incorporating a Louis XV console, a transitional Louis XV/XVI marquetry commode and a Louis XVI bureau plat with a floral inlaid cartonnier, was likely a pre-prepared panel acquired from a specialist marqueteur workshop. Similar mise-en-abyme marquetry of pieces of furniture decorating a piece of furniture appears on a Louis XVI secrétaire à abattant by Roussel in the Musée Lambinet, Versailles a further Louis XVI secrétaire published by Charles Packer in Paris Funiture by the Master Ebenistes in 1956 (both illustrated in François Quéré, Les Roussel: Une dynastie d'ébénistes au XVIIIe siècle, Dijon 2012, p.172 and 179.

The inlaid vases and objects on the sides and frieze relate to small tables and desk with marquetry still-lives of Chinese porcelain and bronze objects and writing implements, a theme referred to as ustensiles chinois, that became fashionable in the period 1770-1775. This genre of decoration was particularly associated with the the ébéniste Charles Topino (maître 1773), who is known to have sold completed marquetry panels in this style to other cabinetmakers for use in their production. The source for this iconography is believed to be Chinese lacquer screen and woodcut prints in circulation among art dealers at the time, although the vases and objects employed on Rousseau's inlaid work appears less specifically Asian in inspiration.

This desk appears to form part of a group of three bureaux à cylindre of the same form all with comparable vase and object inlay and whose rolltops all with marquetry panels whose design incorporates the same transitional commode and bureau plat and cartonnier. One was sold Sotheby’s London 12 May 2014 lot 56, and the other was recently in the French regional antiques trade.

An extremely unusual aspect of this desk are the legs that screw into the main body of the desk and can be dismantled to facilitate transport, a construction technique that is extremely rare in French furniture and more commonly associated with the great German neoclassical cabinetmaker David Roentgen. Roentgen began selling to Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette in 1779 and the following year opened a Paris showroom A la ville de Neuwied in the Rue de Grenelle, managed by his compatriot Johann Gottlieb Frost. A mahogany games table of c.1780-85 by Roentgen with removable legs is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (illustrated in Wolfram Koeppe ed., Extravagant Inventions: The Princely Furniture of the Roentgens, Metropolitan Museum, New York 2012), which interestingly bears the stamp of Pierre Macret, who became marchand-ébéniste privilégié du roi in 1757 and was a supplier to the royal household as well as a dealer. By the 1780s Macret had ceased his manufacturing activity and probably stamped this table as a retailer, which indicates there were instances of collaboration between French and German cabinetmakers active in the capital in the late 18th century, and perhaps Roussel’s desk was specifically commissioned or later adapted for a German client.

Pierre Roussel was the son of Parisian cabinetmaker, and his three brothers all trained as joiners. After becoming master in 1745 he established his workshop L'Image de Saint Pierre in the Rue de Charenton in the Faubourg Saint Antoine, and developed a successful workshop, later assisted by his two sons. Although he never received a royal commission, he was able to attract a distinguished clientele including the Prince de Condé at the Palais Bourbon and Chantilly, and in 1769 the  l’Almanach d’indication générale ou du vray mérite listed him as one of the leading ébénistes in Paris.

Provenance
Property from a Park Avenue Collection