BY BERNARD II VAN RISENBURGH, MID-18TH CENTURY

Details

A LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD AND BOIS SATINE TABLE EN CHIFFONNIERE
BY BERNARD II VAN RISENBURGH, MID-18TH CENTURY
The shaped rectangular top inlaid with rounded reserves above a candle holder slide to each side, and one drawer to the right side, above a green leather-lined slide to the front, and on cabriole legs headed by rocaille and floral mounts, joined by an undertier platform similarly inlaid, terminating in foliate sabots, stamped twice 'BVRB' and 'JME'; the rocaille mounts between the legs replaced
26 in. (66 cm.) high; 16 ¾ in. (42.5 cm.) wide; 11 ¼ in. (28.5 cm.) deep

Provenance

Collection of Thelma Chrysler Foy, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 16 May 1959, lot 315.

Special Notice

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Peter Horwood

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Lot Essay

Bernard II van Risenburgh, maître in 1730.
With its chamfered slender cabriole legs and superb bois satiné and kingwood parquetry, this elegant table is characteristic of the oeuvre of Bernard II Van Risen Burgh ('BVRB') and is closely related to the example depicted in the 1756 portrait of Madame de Pompadour by François Boucher (formerly in the Collection of Baron Maurice de Rothschild and now in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich). The latter table is recorded in the catalogue of the sale of Boucher's estate in 1771: '1006 - Un vide-poche, fait par Bernard, il est en bois de rose et amarante, le dessus de bois de violette entouré d'un quart de rond, chute, sabots et ornements de bronze doré. Hauteur 25 pouces, longeur 15 pouces 6 lignes, largeur 10 pouces 9 lignes.'
This celebrated model belongs to a group of almost identical tables, all stamped by, or attributed to BVRB, which display minor differences in the shape of the apron, the design of the ormolu mounts or the marquetry. It is likely that this group of small tables was supplied through the intervention of a marchand-mercier such as Lazare Duvaux, who is known to have delivered furniture by BVRB to Madame de Pompadour (F.J.B. Watson, The Antique Collector, December 1960, p. 227). Indeed, on 27 January 1750 Lazare Duvaux sold to Madame Rouillé ‘une petite table à la Pompadour, avec ses cornets en bois satiné a fleurs, 72 livres’ (Livre-Journal, no. 432), which could well have represented a table of this model made fashionable by and named after the King’s favourite. With its fixed top and sliding writing-surface, this table belongs to a sub-category which was used for writing, and an example of this type is recorded in an inventory of Madame de Pompadour's château de Saint-Hubert: 'Une table à écrire en bois de rose et fleurs de bois de violette ayant par devant un tablette à coulisse couverte de maroquin noir, à droit un tiroir à clef garni d'encrier, poudrier et boite d'éponge.' A table with the same fan parquetry top and stamped by BVRB were in the Dubernet-Douine Collection, sold Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 11-12 April 1946, lot 67 and subsequently in the Collection of Hubert de Saint-Senoch at Pavillon de Bidaine, Provence, sold Sotheby’s Monaco, 6 December 1983, lot 295.
The present table was part of the collection of the celebrated New York socialite and aesthete Thelma Chrysler Foy (1902-1957) and sold in her sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 16 May 1959, lot 315.

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