French Regence Commode with faun and lion masks by Criaerd

An important and rare Regence period chest of drawers, "en tombeau" or "à la Régence" but also "à moustaches", curved on all sides, opening with four drawers on three rows.

Capped with Vieux Rance marble molded with a "bec-de-corbin" pattern following its contours, this wide chest of drawers in a single veneer of violet wood is enlivened by powerful curves, adorned with brass fluting on the front and sides, and covered with an exceptional chased and gilded bronze trim: thick drop handles and wide gadrooned rosettes, large cartel keyways, long curved falls with faun masks with bat-winged ears, gadroons, floral falls, plumes and shells, masks with lion's heads, gadrooned moustaches (or "croissants") and finally a radiating cul-de-lampe.
It is precisely these rich bronzes that enable us to attribute this piece of furniture with certainty to the Criaerd family and to Mathieu Criaerd himself, and of course, in the absence of a stamp - quite normal since we are in the middle of the Regency period (but we'll come back to this later) - by analogy with commodes bearing his iron mark. The faun mask falls of this model are rare, and this is even truer for the lion mask sabots, which are particularly uncommon (our gilder from Nice, who has been working for private individuals and the trade for over 30 years, confided to us that he had never had them in his hands before), except in the hands of a few first-rate craftsmen such as Jean-Charles Saunier and Michel Mallerot, or Nicolas Berthelmi. As for the powerful lock escutcheons, they are absolutely typical of the Criaerd.

The quality of the violet wood veneer used, with its complex curling patterns, is also noteworthy.
Like rosewood, violet wood (Dalbergia cearensis) is a member of the rosewood family, with which it is often confused by antiques dealers and experts (sometimes both). It is purple veined with black (which brings us to another confusion, the ancient name of "purple wood" also refers to amaranth, which is purple-brown in color) and whose area of distribution is limited to Brazil, unlike rosewood, which grows in Central America, mainly Brazil and Honduras, but also in India and Asia. So, for your information, the name "Indian violet wood" for Dalbergia cearensis is a double nonsense, since whether it refers to violet wood or amaranth, it refers to woods exclusive to Brazil and Guiana, and it's even more annoying when the species we're looking at turns out to be rosewood, for example, and it's not to be wished that it comes from India, as this would be to designate its worst variety.
Sawn on the back (i.e. parallel to the growth rings) and in its finest quality, as seen on this chest of drawers, violet wood is undoubtedly the species that lends itself best to curling, and particularly to the so-called "butterfly wing" effect. Alas, here again, many people make the mistake of confusing back-sawn wood with end-grain wood (used in marquetry but very rarely in veneering). As a result, we see so-called "bois de bout" chests of drawers with numerous pieces of wood, but not a single one in "bois de bout" (which doesn't seem to make much sense to us).

The Regence period is a very short period in the history of the decorative arts, running from 1715 to 1723, with a tolerance of between 1710 and 1730. Most of the chests of drawers on the market referred to as "Regence period" do not actually fall within this precise framework. Regency chests of drawers are not stamped, except in the case of a few pioneering cabinetmakers who sign their initials in large letters. Our commode, in contrast to the referent and stamped model we'll be documenting, but also to many others, is truly full Regence period, which we intend to emphasize.