BY PIERRE MACRET, CIRCA 1775

With its striking and innovative geometric parquetry, this secrétaire relates to some of the finest inlaid furniture produced in the late Louis XV and early Louis XVI period. Combining a number of decorative schemes found on the work of the period’s most renowned makers, the decoration of the secretaire suggests Macret operated at the heart of the Parisian cabinetmaking industry, incorporating elements of the established Louis XV style as well as the nascent classicism of the Louis XVI period.

The lozenge-shaped parquetry centred by flowerheads and punctuated by tablets on the present secrétaire relates to the decoration of a secrétaire by Jean François Leleu in the musée Nissim-de-Camondo, Paris (inv. no. CAM 584) and to a commode by Martin Carlin, sold at Ader, Picard and Tajan, Paris, 1988. These distinguished ébénistes were at the forefront of neoclassical design and their work embodied the pinnacle of taste and fashion from the late 1760s onwards, during which time Macret was rapidly developing his own status as an ébéniste in Paris. Another earlier related commode by Macret, dated 1765, sold anonymously at Christie’s, New York, 29-30 November 2012, lot 76 and employs a similar floral parquetry to the central panel. The present secrétaire develops on the visual scheme of the 1765 commode, improving both in design and technique from the maker’s earlier work. The same flower head and tablet parquetry is employed, with the expanded programme of geometric and cubic inlay framing the central oval decorations. Likely produced following Macret's relocation to the Rue Saint-Honoré workshop in 1772, the refinement of execution and the variation of parquetry displays both the maker’s talent for composition and awareness of his contemporaries, with the complexity and interplay of the inlay decoration subtly balanced against the overarching visual harmony and simplicity of the design.

Pierre Macret was born in 1727, married at the age of 20 and in December 1756 became marchand-ébéniste privilégié du Roi suivant la cour et conseils de sa majesté, replacing the widow of Latz. The records of the marchard-mercier Lazare Duvaux reveal a debt of 1169 livres to Macret by December 1758. At the same time he worked with the marchand Darnault, demonstrated by a commode which was sold anonymously at Christie's Monaco, 20 June 1994, lot 362. Newspaper advertisements reveal that he worked in the rue Saint Honoré in the hotel d'Auvergne, close to Saint-Roch, in 1763 the marquis de Marigny, Directeur des Bâtiments, bought 1890 livres worth of furniture from him in 1770. In 1771 Macret changed his status and became marchand-mercier in Paris. He was fournisseur ordinaire des menus-plaisirs du Roi from 1764 to 1771 and his status cemented shortly before 1772 when Macret delivered 1222 livres worth of furniture to the Dauphine Marie-Antoinette.