Lot 332: A LOUIS XV/XVI TRANSITIONAL ORMOLU-MOUNTED MAHOGANY COMMODE CIRCA 1760, STAMPED FOUR TIMES J. F. OEBEN JME

A LOUIS XV/XVI TRANSITIONAL ORMOLU-MOUNTED MAHOGANY COMMODE CIRCA 1760, STAMPED FOUR TIMES J. F. OEBEN JME Jean-François Oeben (1721-1763) height 33 1/2 in.; width 53 1/2 in.; depth 22 in. 85 cm; 136 cm; 56 cm

Bernard Steinitz, Paris, 1983

Jean-François Oeben established his workshop in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine and from 1750-1754 he worked as an artisan libre in Charles-Joseph Boulle's workshop, and he rented a mezzanine at the Louvre. After being appointed ébéniste du Roi in 1754 he moved to the Gobelins. Renowned for his mechanical furniture, in 1760 he was granted the title ébéniste mécanicien du roi.' His distinguished clientèle included the Garde Meuble Royal, the duc d'Aumont, Madame de Pompadour and the Minister's Choiseul and d'Argenson. After Oeben's death at the age of only 41, his widow continued to operate the business under difficult circumstances and in 1767 she married Oeben's most accomplished apprentice, Jean-Henri Riesener.

Commodes of this distinctive form, known as 'commode à la grecque' and executed in bois satiné or mahogany, were almost exclusively supplied by the Oeben brothers to two clients: the duc de Choiseul and Madame de Pompadour. The duc de Choiseul used the pieces he commissioned from the Oebens to furnish the château de Chanteloup, which he acquired in 1763. A commode à la grecque similar to the lot offered here originally from that order was later purchased by the duc de Penthièvre and later by the royal Garde-Meuble, and was eventually sold Sotheby's Monaco, February 26-27, 1992, lot 220. Madame de Pompadour was probably the most important client of Jean-François and Simon Oeben, and an inventory of her belongings prepared at her death in 1763 shows that the marquise ordered seventeen commodes à la grecque from the Oebens' atelier between 1761 and 1763 for her quarters at the châteaux de Versailles, Auvilliers and Ménars. At Ménars a similar commode is recorded to have been used in Pompadour's bedchamber: "Une commode à la grecque de bois d'acajou avec son dessus de marbre 180 livres." Pompadour's brother, the marquis de Marigny, was also a fan of such commodes in the Greek taste and similar pieces were listed in the inventories prepared at the time of his death. A mahogany commode à la grecque with similarly restrained ormolu decoration was sold Sotheby's New York, November 3, 1989, lot 105. Another commode of this form attributed to Jean-François Oeben and formerly in the collection of Madame Lucienne Fribourg was sold Sotheby's New York, April 19, 1969, lot 201.