"Parisian Commode In Marquetry Transation Period Circa 1770"
Beautiful chest of drawers in Louis XV transition period Louis XVI, Parisian work plated with rosewood in butterfly wings in frames of boxwood stained green and mahogany. Beautiful bronze trim finely chiseled and gilded with original fine gold. It opens with 5 drawers: 2 large at the bottom, 3 small under the belt, simulating only one. Pink marble from the Pyrenees. Circa 1770. Our chest of drawers bears a false Etienne Avril stamp, probably affixed in the 1960s to increase its value. This attribution is absurd since this work has nothing to do with that of Etienne Avril, whose work is almost related to the Louis XVI style. Nevertheless it is undoubtedly the work of a great master, given the quality of its manufacture, its materials (pink marble, bronzes finely chiseled and gilded with fine gold) and its elegance: its proportions are perfect, without any fault in taste. It is a beautiful model, no doubt the work of a great Parisian cabinetmaker, to be compared to the work of Reizell or a simple model of Topino who used mahogany a lot around his inlaid panels. To push the attribution further, our dresser has its own characteristic, which acts as the signature of the cabinetmaker: the fact that the falling angles are placed on "terraces" which emerge from the corner. These are taken in the mass and not reported. This rare feature is unique to a single cabinetmaker, like his signature. However, our research has so far failed to advance a certain hypothesis.