A Louis XVI gilt-bronze mounted mahogany demi-lune commode by Charles Krier, circa 1780

Galerie M. Segoura, Paris, 1996.

Cabinetmaker Charles Krier was born in 1742. He was apprenticed in the Faubourg de Saint Antoine before setting up his workshop on the rue de Bac. He was made a maître ébéniste in 1774.[1]

This demi-lune commode is typical of Krier’s Louis XVI style, veneered in mahogany with minimal adornment apart from the gilt bronze moulding. The form of the escutcheons – a roundel topped with an elaborate bow and hanging garlands of leaves – are commonplace forms from the1770s and 1780s, with the design found on commodes and other furniture forms by a number of different bronziers working in Paris at the time.

A similar commode stamped A. Héricourt was sold Sotheby’s Zurich, 24^th May 1982, lot 292. Likewise, another comparable model – though squatter in form – was sold Sotheby’s New York, 20^th November 1993, lot 258.

[1] Pierre Kjellberg, Le mobilier Français du XVIIe Siècle, Paris, les éditions de l’amateur, 1998, 467.