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AFTER THE MODEL BY CHARLES CRESSENT, LAST QUARTER 19TH CENTURY The cartonnier surmounted by a clock with dial signed 'Le Roy, Paris' above with three pairs of shelf recesses and a further compartment to each side, the desk top inset with a gilt-tooled leather writing surface, each angle with a scrolling shell clasp, above three frieze drawers to each side, and slide to each narrow side, on cabriole legs headed by têtes des guerriers antiques and terminating in acanthus-cast sabots, the drawer locks signed 'DENY PARIS' 49 in. (124.5 cm.) high, overall; 80 in. (203.5 cm.) wide; 39 in. (99cm.) deep
Reprising the work of celebrated Ancien Régime cabinetmaker and sculptor, Charles Cressent (1685-1768), this impressive bureau plat is a fine manifestation of the extraordinary talent of the nineteenth-century ébenistes, who not only created faithful replicas of 18th century models but also imaginatively drew inspiration from them.
The present desk is a largely true reproduction of the model that Charles Cressent is known to have produced at least three times circa 1740-1745: one now housed in the primary residence of the French President, the Palais de l’Elysée, Paris; another in the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon (inv. 2369), having formerly been in the collections of, among others, baron Nathaniel de Rothschild and baron Alphonse de Rothschild; and the third, sold from the collections of the duc de Richelieu in 1788, later in the Houses of Parliament in London, and today in the collections of Grimsthorpe Castle and illustrated in A. Pradère, French Furniture Makers, London, 1989, p. 268-9, no. 61.
Originally, all three 18th-century examples were surmounted with matching serre-papiers, as noted in the descriptions of the three sales of his stock in 1749, 1757, 1765, as well as in the sale catalogues of the time in which Cressent’s bureaux are mentioned. However, the Grimthorpe example is the only bureau plat which has conserved its serre-papiers. Similar to the present lot, the serre-papiers is inset with a clock above several fitted compartments. However, the 18th-century clock is on a much larger scale and is surmounted by ormolu figural groups. It is interesting to speculate that ébeniste who created the present bureau plat understood the 18th-century model to have once had a serre-papiers but perhaps did not have a clear point of reference, and thus imagined the slender and elegant design pictured here, which elegantly suited but did not detract from the celebrated model.