An opulently carved Renaissance style oak "grand dressoir" cabinet.
An opulently carved Renaissance style oak "grand dressoir" cabinet. A representative cabinet of half-octagonal section, resting on a stepped pedestal supporting two pillars to the front and a closed back section. The upper corpus is separated into two layers with six panels each and two doors and two drawers to the bevelled edges. The sections separated by figurally carved pillars. The central door decorated with a crowned double-headed eagle flanked by a lion and griffon. All panels richly carved with primarily symmetrical relief decor depicting foliage, wells, putti, birds and medallions. H 168, W 120, D ca. 67 cm.
A partial copy of the piece made for Maximilian I, produced 2nd half 19th C.
The original piece made for Maximilian I in the first half of the 16th century was kept in the collection of Monsieur d´Yvon until 1885. It was published numerous times, for example by Albert Jacquemart (Histoire du Mobilier, Paris, Librairie Hachette) in 1876 and by Alfred de Champeaux (Le Meuble, Paris, Quantin) in 1885. This type of furniture is generally localised to Flanders or Germany, and a cabinet with a similar architectural structure dated 1618 is attributed to a Rhenish, or even Cologne, workshop and kept in the Lemmers-Danforth Collection in Wetzlar. The piece illustrates how this structure could survive for so long as a form of representative furniture, even finding reception in the 19th century.
Provenance
Collection of Emile Gavet
Sold by Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, from 31st May to 9th June 1897, lot 2
Westphalian collection
Literature
Presented on a full-page illustration in the auction catalogue of the Emile Gavet collection and described as an "Ecole flamande, première moitié du XVI siècle".
On early furniture, cf. the dressoir in the Louvre (inv. no. OA.6973) in: Windisch-Graetz, Möbel Europas. Renaissance und Manierismus, München 1983, no. 107.
A comparable early piece formerly kept in the Bruno Perrier collection, sold by. Ader Tajan, Paris, 7th December 1993, lot 55.
Cf. Koeppe, Die Lemmers-Danforth-Sammlung Wetzlar, Heidelberg 1992, M 64, p. 132 f.