LOT Phillips de Pury & Company  /  THE JOHN HOBBS COLLECTION OF ENGLISH & CONT...  / 

26

A SOUTH GERMAN ROCOCO WHITE-PAINTED AND PARCEL-GILT COMMODE Inspired by the designs of F...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:120,000.00 - 180,000.00 USD
A SOUTH GERMAN ROCOCO WHITE-PAINTED AND PARCEL-GILT COMMODE Inspired by the designs of F...
A SOUTH GERMAN ROCOCO WHITE-PAINTED AND PARCEL-GILT COMMODE

Inspired by the designs of Francois Cuvilliés (1695-1768), possibly carved by Johann Thomas Sailler (d. 1780), Munich, circa 1760 The serpentine velvet- covered top above two long drawers, with bead and chain surrounds centering scrolled and flowering rocailles, each side boldly set with a large rocaille, on acanthus decorated cabriole legs with scrolled feet 351/2 X 63 X 23 in. (90 X 160 X 58 cm)

$120,000-180,000

Provenance Count Volpi di Misurata, Palazzo Volpi, Rome (sold Sotheby's London, December 16, 1998, lot 29).

FRANCOIS CUVILLIÉS Cuvilliés was one of the leading German rococo architects and designers in the 18th century. He became Court architect in Munich in 1728, was responsible for the Residenz Munich (1729-1737) and the Amalienburg in the Park of the summer palace Nymphenburg near Munich (1734-1739), and became Director of the Royal Works in 1763. From 1738 until his death, Cuvilliés published a series of engravings of designs for ornament, boiseries and furniture, sometimes derived from the publications of Jacques II de Lajoue (1687-1761) and other French contemporaries, but he had an even lighter, more fantastical interpretation. These designs were published in three parts made up of books comprised mostly of six plates each. The first part (30 books) began to appear in 1738; the second (20 books) in 1745; and the third (29 books) in 1756.

STYLE AND DATING The present commode, with its asymmetrical rococo carving and white-painted and parcel-gilt decoration, is inspired by the designs of Cuvilliés, Livre de differents desseins de Commodes (1742-1745) (Adolf Feulner and Preston Remington, "Examples of South German Woodwork in the Metropolitan Museum," Metropolitan Museum Studies (1930), p. 159, fig. 7). These designs depict elongated commodes à traverse with two drawers paneled with rocaille carving, deeply carved aprons, boldly projecting angles, and sides with a subtle S-shape. The form of this commode, its asymmetrical rococo carving, white-painted and parcel-gilt decoration, and boldly carved corners can be seen on other commodes inspired by the designs of Cuvilliés and thought to have been carved by Joachim Dietrich (1690-1753), circa 1740-1750:

-Metropolitan Museum of Art (Ibid., fig. 1) (single). -formerly collection of Max Bernheimer (Ibid., fig. 8) (pair). -formerly collection of L. Bernheimer (Ibid., fig. 9). -formerly the Hirth collection (Ibid., fig. 11; sold Sotheby's London, December 13, 2000, lot 36, £179,500) (pair). -J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (Charissa Bremer-David, et al., Decorative Arts: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue of the Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum. Los Angeles, 1993, no. 396, p. 228) (pair). -Erzbischöfliches Palais (formerly the Palais Holstein) (single).

However, the ambitious asymmetrical rococo design of the present commode distinguishes it from the aforementioned examples and suggests a later date of execution. It retains the same basic swept form, projecting legs, and white-painted and parcel-gilt decoration of the other commodes, but moves far beyond the still largely Régence ornament with which they are decorated. The heads to the corners and the strapwork and latticework underlying the decoration to the drawerfronts and sides of these commodes would have come to Cuvilliés during his training in Munich under Joseph Effner (1687-1645) and in Paris under Jacques-Francois Blondel (1705-1774); Effner himself had studied in Paris under Germain Boffrand (1667-1754), hence his strongly Régence formation. The dating of the present commode is based on that of a documented pair of asymmetrical rococo commodes in the Kurfürstenzimmer, Residenz, Munich, formerly attributed to Johann Adam Pichler (1716-1761) and now known to have been carved by Johann Thomas Sailler in 1761 (Brigitte Langer and A. Wuttemberg, Die deutschen Mobel des 16 bis 18. Jahrhundertsm Die Mobel der Residenz Munchen. Munich, 1996, Vol II, p. 204, no. 58 (Inv. Res Mu. M282 and 283). It is, in a sense, the history of the Kurfürstenzimmer itself that serves to explain the difference in date and style between the aforementioned group of essentially Régence commodes and the present example and the above pair of 1761. The Kurfûrstenzimmer was refurbished twice during reign of Elector Max Joseph III (1745-77), first by the court architect, Johann Gunetsrhainer, 1746-1748, an apparently unsatisfactory job redone by Cuvilliés, 1760-1763. The present commode was, however, probably not made for Elector Max Joseph III or for any of his residences, but for some member of the Munich aristocracy whose house had been built or remodeled about the same time, possibly by Cuvilliés himself.

A similar, though even more wrought blue-painted and parcel-gilt commode, was sold Sotheby's Zurich, November 29, 1995, lot 195.

THE COUNT AND COUNTESS VOLPI DI MISURATA AND THE PALAZZO VOLPI, ROME For a history of Count Volpi di Misurata and the Palazzo Volpi, Rome, see the footnote for lot 5
Sign In to Bookmark Lot