Lot 116 | France | EXCEPTIONAL SECRÉTAIRE EN PENTE

EXCEPTIONAL SECRÉTAIRE EN PENTE.

France.
Date: Ca. 1730/40.
Maker/Designer: In the style of Etienne Doirat.
Technique: Mahagony and rosewood veneered. Fire gilded bronze fittings.
Description: On four high, curved legs, the unusually shaped body with double angled corners. A small
central drawer flanked by two smaller drawers extending across the corner. Slanted, hinged
writing surface at the front, with red leather inlay on the inside. The interior with four
small side drawers and wider centre compartments. The drawers framed by grooved mouldings
and the four legs with unusual bronze mounts with acanthus and female mascarons.
Measurement: Ca. 100x97x54cm.
Mark: On the bottom old inventory label Cyrillic with crown: Possibly of the Guts Iljinskoe that has been destroyed.
Veneer partially loose and or enclosed.
Enclosed: 1 key.


Provenance:
- Possibly from the inventory of the now largely destroyed Ilyinskoe estate.
Located in the Moscow region on the banks of the Moskva River, Emperor Alexander II gave it to his wife, Empress Maria Alexandrova. It remained in the possession of the Romanov family until the revolution in 1917.
- Private collection in Northern Germany.

Literature:
- Hojer, Gerhard, Ottomeyer, Hans (eds.): Die Möbel der Residenz München I. Die französischen Möbel des 18. Jahrhunderts, Munich 1995, here a bureau plat by Charles Cressent with figurative fittings, p.75 ff.
- Kjellberg, Pierre: Le Mobilier Français Du XVIII. Siècle, Paris 1989. For a comparison of the elaborate bronze fittings and formal language, see for example works by Charles Cressent (p.199) or Etienne Doirat (p.265).