Dalva Brothers Antiques, Antique Furniture, New York

French 18th century furniture, clocks, lighting, paintings, porcelain, sculpture and tapestries

Two nearly identical transitional commodes attributed to Pierre-Antoine Foullet.  Each commode, of breakfront form, is veneered in tulipwood framed by purplewood with marquetry reserves surrounded by some of the ormoulu mounts typically used by Foullet in the composition favored by this ébéniste. The drawers are centered by a marquetry oval portraying a woman whose hand is being kissed by her beau, flanked by shaped panels depicting sprays of flowers with two outer marquetry ovals depicting vases of flowers.  The shaped sides each have an oval marquetry panel depicting floral sprays.[One rosette in a frieze is replaced.]

A commode sharing the characteristics of these commodes is at Versailles and was delivered for the bedchamber of Madame Victoire and was later owned by Madame Adélaïde. Another is at Frederiksborg Castle in Denmark. A signed commode identical to the commode with drop ring handles, sharing the same purple mottled marble that is cut in the same way, and probably its pair, is illustrated in Salverte, Les Ébénistes du XVIIIe Siècle; Volume II, plate XXII (Les Éditions d’Art et d’Histoire; Paris, 1934). It had been in the collection of Mlle. Marquis (1913) from which it passed to the E.-M.Hodgkin collection.

 The commodes differ in the following ways:

The marble tops, both original but one of a green and white mottled marble; the other of white and purple mottled marble, probably Serravezza breccia.

One commode with ormoulu inserts forming stop flutes.

One commode with ring handles.

The key escutcheons differ.

One commode has tulipwood on the tops of the drawer interiors; the other has amaranth.