Pair of Transitional period coffee tables stamped R.V.L.C.

Two coffee tables in the model forming a pair, inlaid with turbinated rosettes and garlands of flowers, veneered with satin, violet wood, lemon and tobacco tinted sycamore, all underlined and composed nets, tinted green, natural boxwood and black nets. They open in front by three drawers on three rows hidden behind a leaf. The base is composed of four cambered feet joined by a shelf crotch in kidney. The door and the shelf are inlaid with turbinated rosettes characteristic of Lacroix's work. The whole is topped with a sheet of white marble of Carrara slightly veined. Beautiful ornamentation of chased and gilded bronze such as openwork galleries, sabots, draw lenses, rosettes and key heads. Both stamped R.VL.C for Roger Van der Cruse dit Lacroix and stamped with the Paris jurand JME. One of them is stamped jointly by Genty as a merchant.
Dimensions: Height 76.5cm - Width 48cm (47.6cm for the other) - Depth 37cm.

Roger Van der Cruse dit Lacroix, Master in 1755 among the most talented cabinetmakers of the Transition period, occupies one of the first ranks. Of Flemish origin, he was born in Paris in 1728, in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine and took over his father's workshop in 1755. It is with small tables, that Roger Van der Cruse will assert his personality at the same time as his predilection for the clear marquetry and the use of the lemon tree, thus underlining the natural contrast of the clear wood with the ebony, the amaranth or the green tinted fruitwood. Oval or round, these small coffee tables are generally equipped with drawers that may or may not form a writing desk. In their great majority, they are marked by a decoration very characteristic of the cabinetmaker is a leafy rosette with five branches, which seems to swivel on itself and which appears in the marquetry of this table, in the center of the top and the shelf of crotch. This pair of tables is a perfect example. Roger Van der Cruse uses two different stamps, "LACROIX" and the initials "RVLC". We sometimes find the two stamps juxtaposed on the same piece of furniture. More discreet, the second one was probably intended for the furniture he supplied to the "merciers" merchants, like one of our tables, the Lacroix stamp was reserved for private customers.

Denis Genty received master on March 13, 1754 is a cabinetmaker and merchant, he enjoys a great reputation with a rich clientele including the Marchioness of Houchin, the Countess of the Hospital, the Marquis of Nesle, that of Chambonnas ...
In addition to his own production, he also sold the works of other great masters such as RVLC, Dautriche, Macret or Hedouin among others.
In spite of that, a bad management leads to his bankruptcy, he files for bankruptcy in 1762.
Bibliography: J. Nicolay, L'art et la manière des maîtres ébénistes français au XVIIIe siècle.
P. Kjellberg, The French furniture of the XVIIIth century.
C. Roinet, Roger Vandercruse dit La Croix.