A Louis XVI meuble à hauteur d'appui signed J.F.LELEU

A Louis XVI meuble a hauteur d'appui signed J.F.LELEU
Oak, rosewood, amaranth, and boxwood veneers. Gilt bronze, steel, and Portor marble.

It opens with a freize drawer and a front door simulating a sliding rosewood shutter. The angled uprights are inlaid with three simulated rosewood flutes on an amaranth background, and the sides are adorned with rosewood veneered panels in amaranth frames. The architectural lines of this piece are emphasized by the vertical flutes of the uprights and two horizontal gilt bronze moldings. It rests on a plinth.

Stamped J.F. LELEU at the top of an upright.

Paris circa 1775.


Jean-François Leleu was one of the favored assistants in the workshop of the great ébéniste Jean-François Oeben (1721-1763). After the early death of his master, Leleu left the workshop, became maître-ébéniste in 1764 and set up on his own, near the place des Vosges in Paris. He attracted a grand and fastidious clientele, notably the comtesse du Barry, the Duc d'Uzés, Baron d'Ivry, and Ange-Laurent Lalive de Jully. By the early 1770s Leleu’s was known as the most important proponent of the avantgarde goût grec. He became the appointed cabinetmaker of the Prince of Condé (1736-1818), to whom he delivered more than 60,000 livres worth of furniture between 1772 and 1777, including commodes for his daughter-in-law the duchesse de Bourbon, to furnish the Palais de Bourbon. At the same time, Leleu also received commissions for the complete furnishing of houses such as the Château du Marais for Jean Le Maistre de la Martinière and he participated in the furnishing, according to the latest fashion, of the Château de Meréville, for the Court banker Jean-Joseph de Laborde (1724-1794). Pieces from these and other important commissions are in the Wallace Collection, London, the Petit Trianon, and the Louvre.

Jean-Francois Leleu retained from his master's teaching a great rigor in the selection of materials and in the care taken in the joinery. All the pieces of furniture supplied by his workshop are characterized by their perfect quality and his rosewood was as renowned as that of BVRB.

From an aesthetic point of view, he developed a more personal style by favoring great sobriety of forms, which flourished in the first neoclassicism born at the end of the reign of Louis XV, known as the "Greek style. The style of Jean-François Leleu is that of a severe neoclassicism, with very masculine works, often highlighted by fluted pilasters at the corners, but without unnecessary fancy, always offering an impression of balance and solidity.

This elegant marquetry and parquetry meuble à hauteur d'appui signed by Jean-François Leleu epitomises the restrained neoclassical style for which this ébéniste was an early proponent.

Our piece of furniture can be compared, in its form and proportions, to a transforming bookcase furniture in the collection of the J.P Getty Museum in Malibu, as well as to two pairs of cabinets housed at the Nissim de Camondo Museum in Paris.