A Louis XVI yewwood, bois satiné, tulipwood, elm, sycamore and parquetry table à écrire, circa 1777,

A Louis XVI yewwood, bois satiné, tulipwood, elm, sycamore and parquetry table à écrire, circa 1777, attributed to Jean-François Hache, Grenoble

the circular white marble top with a gilt-bronze pierced gallery above a sliding leather-lined writing surface, and a sliding ink compartment, above a door sliding to reveal three drawers, on slender cabriole legs joined by an undertier decorated in parquetry with a star, one drawer with a printed trade label reading 'A Grenoble, place Clapeyron, May 1777 (...) Hache fils,...', restorations to veneer

73cm. high, 40cm. diameter; 2ft. 4¾in., 1ft. 3¾in.

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Provenance

The late Mrs Williams Salomon, American Art Association, New York, 4-7 January 1928, lot 811;
Christie's, New York, 26 April 1994, lot 198;
Jean Lupu Antiquaire, Paris, 24 March 1995.
Literature

P. Rouge, F. Rouge, Le Génie des Hache, Paris, 2005, p.430-431, nr. 237 (ill.);

R. Fonvieille, La Dynastie des Hache, Grenoble, 1974, p.95 (for a similar example).
Catalogue note

The trade label inside one of the drawers of this lot allows us to discern not only the hand of the Hache family, but also the year in which they were operating: the label gives a template for a 1770s date with the last digit missing, and was completed by hand to read “May 1777”. In their monograph on the Hache family, Pierre and Françoise Rouge reproduce all of the trade labels used by the Haches, and the label they give as “Etiquette X” used from 1776-1777 matches the one accompanying the present lot.¹The Hache family of ébénistes took the art of marquetry to new levels of sophistication and flourished for several decades during the 18^th century. The success began with Thomas Hache (1664–1747), who created floral marquetry with a vast array of woods from the Alpine forests around Grenoble. Jean-François Hache, his grandson, showed a clear ability to move away from the fluid and abundant rococo style of the Louis XV period and adopt the geometric parquetry preferred during the Louis XVI period, as on the present lot. Jean- François Hache’s activity in the 1770s represents the final flourishing of the Hache family: their final commode was produced in 1783 and Jean- François was sent to prison by the Revolutionary government in December 1793.

¹ Pierre and Françoise Rouge, Le Genie des Hache, 2005, Dijon, p.56, fig. X.