"25% Off - Etienne Doirat – Regence Curved Chest Of Drawers – Circa 1720"
25% discount to apply - New price: €12,150 Elegant Regence chest of drawers curved on the front and flared on the sides in violet wood veneer.
It opens with 4 drawers on 3 rows.
They are framed by uprights with pinched ribs.
Rich and beautiful ornamentation of gilded bronzes with espagnolette heads, rocaille motifs and mythological figures on the sides.
It rests on 4 small curved feet.
Marble top. (small accident on the back edge)
DOIRAT model.
Ep.1st half of the 18th century.
L.112 - P.53 - H.80.
Etienne Doirat (1675-1732) - cabinetmaker. One of the rare great cabinetmakers of the Regency.
His furniture is often made of amaranth or violet wood, veneered in leaves or inlaid with squares.
Born into a family of craftsmen – earthenware makers, carpenters – established since the early years of the 17th century in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, Etienne Doirat was the son of the mason Joseph Doirat and Michelle Ferlu, sister of Pierre-Isaac Ferlu, master merchant-cabinetmaker. His younger brother Pierre-Michel would follow the path of master cabinetmaker like him.
It was in the early years of the 18th century that he obtained his master's letters. He worked all his life on rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine for a wealthy French but also foreign clientele.
Often of a sublime character, his furniture belongs mainly to the Regency style. Chests of drawers constitute the bulk of his production.
An inventory drawn up on July 14, 1732 mentions a large number of them, "in tombeau" or "à la Régence" but also notes some large bookcases, wardrobes, secretaries, regulators and various models of gaming or living room tables.
These pieces of furniture are often made of amaranth or violet wood, veneered in leaves or inlaid with squares.
Doirat makes extensive use of bronzes and of fine quality – made by collaborators who were founders and chasers – where traditional elements such as the mascarons from the time of Louis XIV respond to the busts of women or “Espagnolettes” from the Regency or to the various motifs in a typically Rocaille style.
He sometimes adorns the front of his chests of drawers without crosspieces with a large bronze cartouche that his successors later largely took up. In this field,
Doirat reveals himself to be one of the great creators of decorative formulas and techniques – glories of Parisian cabinetmaking during the reign of Louis XV.
MUSEUMS Chest of drawers
- Petit Palais Chest of drawers
- J. Paul Getty Museum Chest of drawers
- Cleveland Museum of Art BIBLIOGRAPHY French Furniture of the 18th Century
- Pierre Kjellberg - Les Editions de l'Amateur - 1989 Cabinetmakers of the 18th Century
- Comte François de Salverte - Les éditions d'Art et d'Histoire - 1934
Le Magazine de PROANTIC
TRÉSORS Magazine
Rivista Artiquariato