A Louis XV Gilt-Bronze Mounted Bois Satiné Commode-Secrétaire by Charles Cressent, Circa 1735

By repute, the collection of Valentine Eugénie Joséphine Walsh de Serrant (1810 - 1887), who in 1830 married Charles Bretagne Marie de La Trémoille, duc de la Trémoïlle (1764-1839); Château de Serrant, Saint-Georges-sur-Loire, France

Auction Chapelle-Perrin-Fromantin, Versailles, Palais des Congrès, 11 May 1980, lot 60

Offered Christie's London, 26 March 1981, lot 86 (withdrawn)

Private Collection, Paris, acquired through Cabinet Jean-Pierre Dillée, 1984

Thence by Descent

Alexandre Pradère, Charles Cressent, Dijon 2003, no.166 p.289

This extremely rare model follows the design of the classic Louis XV commode developed by Cressent, with the unusual innovation of a top that slides forward to allow a concealed superstructure of stepped drawers and pigeonholes based on the interior of a slant front bureau en pente to be raised by a mechanism operated by a crank inserted on the side. A work of this type appeared in the 1749 auction of Cressent's stock as lot 22, described as un secrétaire qui représente une commode & qui cependant a toute la propriété que l'on puisse souhaiter, il est facile de s'y tromper, ne pouvant s'imaginer que c'est un secrétaire, attendu la véritable figure d'une commode. A further auction in 1765 included another example as lot 65, a secrétaire servant de commode; le dessus se tire & sert de bureau; il se lève en rase de la table à écrire, & on y trouve toutes sortes de commodités dedans (Pradère 2003, p.168).

The form derives from a type of two-drawer commode produced by Cressent's workshop from the late 1720s/early 1730s described as à double crosses en S et chute de fleurs, referring to the distinctive design of the gadrooned C-scroll and floral spray mounts on the front (Pradère 2003, nos.135-45 p.283-85). [Fig.1] In addition to the offered lot, four other similar commodes-secrétaires are recorded (Pradère 2003, nos.163-65, 167), all sharing the same double foliate scroll handles on the lower drawers and diamond-shaped trellis (à croisillons) parquetry veneer. Three of them employ identical C-scroll and floral spray bronze mounts on the façade, acanthus scroll chutes and paw feet sabots, including one formerly in the Oppenheim collection (sold Christie's London, 10 June 1913, lot 197; illustrated in A. Pradère, Les ébénistes français de Louis XIV à la révolution, Paris 1989, p.138 fig.104 and Pradère 2003, p.169 and no.163 p.288) [Fig.2]. The fourth example utilises a low apron and slightly serpentine silhouette more typical of earlier commodes from the Régence period (discussed in A. Boutémy, 'Essais d'attributions de commodes et d'armoires à Charles Cressent,' Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art français, 1964, p.89).

As both Pradère and Dillée have pointed out, the commode-secrétaire represents one of the earliest and possibly the first appearance of metamorphic case furniture in Parisian ébénisterie, predating by at least two decades the harlequin writing tables and cabinets referred to as à la Bourgogne produced by the later generation of Louis XV cabinetmakers such as Jean-François Oeben, Roger Vandercruse Lacroix and René Dubois [Fig.3].

Charles Cressent (1685-1768) has been described as one of the 'three greatest cabinetmakers of the 18th century' along with Boulle and Riesener, and one whose work epitomised the 'libertinage plein d'esprit' that characterised the Rococo period of the Régence and first half of Louis XV's reign (Alexandre Pradère, 'Charles Cressent, sculpteur et ébéniste du Régent,' L'Estampille L'Objet d'art 387, January 2004, p.48-49) Like Boulle, Cressent considered himself more an artist than artisan; they both trained as draughtsmen and sculptors and shared a passion for collecting fine art. Like Boulle he was also as much a bronzier and a dealer as an ébéniste, designing and overseeing the manufacture of highly figurative gilt bronze mounts for his case furniture and developing an important production of gilt bronze objects including wall lights, chenets and especially clock cases.

Born the son of a woodcarver and grandson of a cabinetmaker in Amiens, Cressent was received as a sculptor into the Academy of Saint Luke in 1714. He started his career in the workshop of Joseph Poitou (c.1680-1719), the official ébéniste to the Régent, the Duc d’Orléans, and after Poitou’s death in 1719 Cressent married his widow and took over the atelier in the Rue Notre Dames des Victoires, instantly obtaining access to an elite clientele that would come to include the Elector of Bavaria, the King of Portugal, and wealthy financiers like Blondel de Gagny, Crozat and Harenc de Presle. As the regulations requiring the use of the estampille did not come into force until 1743, Cressent never stamped his work, and attributions are often based on the bronze mounts that he designed himself and had cast and gilded in in his own workshop in order to maintain their exclusivity. This practice was in strict violation of Parisian guild regulations, and Cressent was frequently involved in legal disputes with the guilds of bronze casters (fondeurs) and gilders (doreurs), and the municipal authorities confiscated bronzes and tools from his premises on three occasions in 1723, 1733 and 1743. Despite his notoriety and the patronage of the Duc d’Orléans, Cressent does not appear to have ever received royal commissions or worked with any of the marchands merciers, and financial security eluded him. In order to raise capital he was compelled to hold three sales of his stock in 1749, 1757 and 1765, with mixed results; he had officially retired by 1757 and died relatively impoverished.

Valentine Walsh de Serrant was a descendant of Philip Walsh (1666-1708) of Kilkenny, a Jacobite loyal to the House of Stuart and one of the Irish 'Wild Geese' who emigrated to France after the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. It was Walsh who transported the defeated James II from County Cork to Saint Malo. Walsh's son Antoine (1703-1763) settled in Nantes and became a wealthy shipowner, and in 1749, along with his brother François Jacques Walsh (1704-1782) he acquired from the last surviving descendant of the de Bautru family, the Château de Serrant outside Angers, restoring the property and creating an English style park. The château still belongs to the descendants of Valentine Walsh de Serrant and the Duc de la Trémoïlle,