BY ADRIEN FAIZELOT-DELORME, MID-18TH CENTURY

Adrien Faizelot-Delorme, maître in 1748.

Conceived in rare red lacquer and embellished with delicate foliate and rockwork mounts, this superb commode epitomises the fascination for the Orient and the goût for all things exotic prevalent in the reign of Louis XV. The commode is typical of the luxury furniture conceived by fashionable Parisian marchands-merciers who were unique in their ability and prerogrative to import panels of oriental lacquer and attach them to European ébénisterie of the finest quality.

Red lacquer commodes related to the one offered include a celebrated group of commodes executed by B.V.R.B. and probably delivered by the marchand-mercier Lazare-Duvaux between 1754 and 1758. Two from this group were formerly in the Grand Salon of the Hôtel de la Rochefoucauld-Doudeauville, rue de Varenne in Paris, and sold Sotheby's, Monaco, 15 June 1996, lots 132 and 133 while a third is currently conserved in the Getty Museum (inv. 72.DA.46) and a fourth in the collection of the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon. Interestingly, a commode with identical mounts and form to the B.V.R.B group but veneered in marquetry and stamped by Delorme was sold Palais Galliera, 18-19 June, 1964, lot 184. This suggests that Delorme and B.V.R.B. were contracted by the same marchands-merciers and the architectural domestic scenes depicted on the lacquer of this commode and the B.V.R.B. red lacquer group further supports this. A candidate for the marchand-mercier who commissioned this commode could be Lazare Duvaux, a dealer who most probably supplied the B.V.R.B. group. Duvaux's surviving journals from 1748-1758 mention a number of commodes in red lacquer or vernis martin with decoration 'aux pagodes', all of which have campan marble tops like the present commode. Though larger in size than our commode, the price of each of these, 720 livres, indicates that they were items of considerable expense.

A further related red lacquer commode of similar proportions executed by Jacques Dubois was sold at Sotheby's, London, 13 December 2000, lot 130 (£377,500 including premium) while a further example by Matthieu Criaerd was supplied to Marie-Josèphe de Saxe, Dauphine de France for her cabinet de retraite at the château de Fontainebleau, was later with the Comtesse d'Artois, sister of Louis XVI, and subsequently sold Christie's, New York, 24 May 2001, lot 208.