Gilles Joubert And Roger Vandercruse Known As Lacroix Marquetry Chest Of Drawers Circa 1755

Gilles Joubert and Roger Vandercruse dit Lacroix Marquetry commode and crowned C bronze circa 1755

Museum quality.

An exceptional collaboration, for an exceptional and rare chest of drawers in amaranth, rosewood, and kingwood marquetry, with chiseled and gilded bronze C Couronné ornamentation, veined grey marble top, the front opening into two drawers without crossbars with geometric decoration, resting on curved legs.

Our chest of drawers is similar to the chests of drawers by Gilles Joubert, ébéniste du roi (Christie's sale on 19 December 2007) and is stamped by Roger Vandercruse known as Lacroix, known as RVLC, as well as several stamps of the Jurande des Menuisiers Ébénistes JME on the front left upright.

Sizes: Height 34.84 Inches. - Width 49.80 Inches. - Depth 25.98 Inches.

In very good condition. Our chest of drawers has been restored and has just received a beautiful varnish.

Biographies :

1° - Gilles Joubert (1689-1775)

Gilles Joubert completed his master's degree between 1715 and 1720.

He began working for the king in 1748. From 1758 onwards, the master became ordinary cabinetmaker to the Garde-meuble de la Couronne, for whom he had previously been only an occasional supplier.
At the beginning of 1763, Gilles Joubert became the King's cabinetmaker, succeeding Jean-François Oeben. He also became dean of his guild.

Between 1748 and 1774, he delivered almost 4,000 pieces of furniture to the Crown. Jean-Henri Riesner succeeded him in 1774.
Initially occasional, commissions from the Crown became increasingly numerous and Joubert's reputation grew by the day. In 1755 he was chosen to make two sumptuous corner pieces to accompany the magnificent medallion that Antoine-Robert Gaudreaus delivered in 1739 to the King's cabinet in Versailles.

These items are described in the Journal du Garde-meuble as follows:
16 May 1755. - Delivered by Sieur JOUBERT, cabinetmaker: two corner cupboards in violet wood with mosaic veneers and a top in griotte marble from Italy, with a key-locking front vent, decorated with cartouches, medal trophies, garlands of flowers and bas-reliefs, one representing Poetry and Music, and the other Sculpture and Painting, on lapis-style cameos; all in chased bronze and gilded with ground gold’.
From 1758, the master became ‘ordinary cabinetmaker to the Garde-meuble de la Couronne’, for whom he had previously been only an occasional supplier, and at the beginning of 1763, Gilles Joubert obtained the title of King's cabinetmaker, to which he was soon able to add that of dean of his guild.

As orders for the Royal Houses continued to flow in, Joubert was obliged to subcontract. This is why, according to the Journal du Garde-Meuble, many of the pieces he delivered did not bear his stamp but those of his colleagues who worked under his direction. Joubert was a pure representative of the Louis XV style, but he knew how to evolve with the times.
We find pieces in the Transition style with neo-classical decorations. However, he had more difficulty expressing himself in the Louis XVI style.
Joubert only signed a tiny proportion of his creations. As the use of the stamp was not yet compulsory during most of his professional life, and as he was exempt from it afterward, as the King's cabinetmaker, it is very difficult to reconstruct Joubert's successful and brilliant career. Only the journal of the Garde-Meuble, kept at the Archives Nationales, provides any indication of the extent of his work.
He was already at an advanced age when the use of marks became widespread in his community, and he showed little eagerness to comply with the rules that made them compulsory.
He retired from business at the age of eighty-five shortly before he died in 1775.

Museums :

Corner cupboards, Chest of drawers - Chateau de Versailles.
Chest of drawers - J. Paul Getty Museum.

Bibliography :

Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe Siècle - Pierre Kjellberg - Les Éditions de l'Amateur - 2002.
Alexandre Pradère, Les ébénistes français de Louis XIV à la Révolution, Paris, 1989, Éd. Le Chêne.
Les ébénistes du XVIIIe siècle - Comte François de Salverte - Les éditions d'Art et d'Histoire - 1934.

2° - Roger Vandercruse dit Lacroix dit RVLC (1728 - 19 May 1799)

Roger Vandercruse, according to his father's Flemish surname, was stamped with the initials RVLC R(oger) V(van) L(a) C(roix).

According to Salverte, he was one of the great cabinet-makers of his generation.

Roger Vandercruse was a famous cabinetmaker of the Parisian nobility who supplied the Duc d'Orléans, Madame du Barry, the kings Louis XV and Louis XVI, and the court in general.

Awarded the title of Master in 1755, Roger Vandercruse was one of the leading exponents of the Transition style. His furniture, heavily decorated with marquetry, was often more decorative than utilitarian.
His small tables were famous for their marquetry and antique bronzes, elements influenced by Jean-François Oeben (1721-1763), ébéniste du Roy and first husband of his sister, Françoise-Marguerite, the second husband being another famous cabinetmaker, Jean-Henri Riesener.

Works in public collections :

In the United States.

New York, Frick Collection: Chest of drawers decorated with oak and mahogany marquetry with a Sarancolin marble top by Gilles Joubert and Roger Vandercruse, made in 1769 for Mademoiselle Victoire, fourth daughter of Louis XV.

In France.

Paris, Musée Nissim de Camondo.

Versailles, Château de Versailles: a large number of his works are preserved there.

Bibliography :

Clarisse Roinet, Roger Vandercruse dit Lacroix, Les cahiers du mobilier, Édition Perrin & Fils, Paris 2000

The Jurande des Menuisiers Ébénistes :

On 20 August 1751, Parliament voted to set up the Jurande: ‘The Court orders that the said letters patent be registered, following the charges, clauses, and conditions laid down by the said Court rulings of 12 July 1745, 20 January 1749 and 21 May 1751...’.

The Jurande is the community of cabinet makers: JME.
It was made up of a principal or syndic and six jurors. The Jurande's role was to settle day-to-day business, select and check masterpieces, monitor the quality of manufacture in Paris workshops, and hunt down free workers. The statutes of the Jurande were drawn up in 1743 and registered with parliament in 1751. From this date onwards, there was a separation between the carpenter and the sculptor. The latter regained all his prerogatives.
From 1743 onwards, the jurors went round all the workshops four times a year and applied the Jurand stamp to works that met the criteria they had defined. They levied a tax of 10 sols and confiscated any defective goods. The mark was deposited at the Jurande office on a lead mass in Paris. In the provinces, this only concerned large manufacturing centers, such as Lyon, with local regulations. Upholsterers who obtained their supplies from freelancers used false stamps. Counterfeiting was punishable by fines and criminal prosecution.