Although unstamped, this beautiful commode, with its imaginative marquetry to the façade, relates stylistically to the oeuvre of Jean-Pierre Latz. An artisan privilégié du roi, Latz worked from the rue du Faubourg St. Antoine and his style is characterized by its sculptural vitality, extremely realistic floral marquetry and distinctive bronze mounts, which he cast himself in direct contravention to the guild regulations, see H. Hawley, “Jean-Pierre Latz, Cabinetmaker,” Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, September/October 1970, p. 207. Counting Frederick II of Prussia and Augustus III of Poland amongst his key patrons, Latz's style was fundamental to the development of the Rococo idiom in Potsdam and Berlin by the likes of the Spindler brothers.
The present commode’s abstract rocaille motifs forming expanding cartouches framed by seed-pods and supplemented by flowers is a type of imaginative marquetry only executed by very few ébénistes, the most notable of them being Jean-Pierre Latz. Other examples of his work displaying these characteristics include a mechanical writing table stamped by Latz and Denis Gentry (probably as a dealer) in the James A. de Rothschild Collection, Waddesdon Manor, see G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection, Waddesdon Manor, Furniture and Gilt-Bronzes, London, 1974, vol. I, no. 82, pp. 395-397; a commode formerly in the Fayet Collection, Lyon, see H. Hawley, op. cit., no. 56; a bureau en pente in the Niarchos collection, see ibid., no. 26. Further examples include a commode stamped by Latz from the Tlyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Villa Favorita, Lugano, sold Sotheby's, London, 14 June 1996, lot 41; and one sold Sotheby's, London, 13 December 1996, lot 107. Most recently, a very similar commode with highly comparable marquetry and attributed to Latz was sold Christie’s, London, 22 May 2019, lot 265.