Offered by Franck Baptiste Paris
Extremely rare pair of rectangular ogee caskets opening with a flap encircled by a bronze ingot. They feature precious Boulle marquetry in the "first part" of brass on a background of brown tortoiseshell for one casket and its "counterpart" for the other, that is, with reversed marquetry from the negative of the cutout.
They both feature very fine arabesque decoration on all four sides.
The richly decorated top with marquetry inspired by the engravings of Jean Berain depicts a goddess on a mound and under a valance, in an environment of scrollwork embellished with grimacing chimera masks, flower vases, birds, and small squirrels.
Vintage kingwood veneer interior, openwork bronze hinges.
Very fine engraving quality.
Beautiful condition.
Parisian work from the Louis XIV period, circa 1700.
Dimensions:
Height: 14 cm; Width: 31.5 cm; Depth: 23.5 cm
For a similar box: Christie's Paris sale, an apartment on the Quai d'Orsay decorated by Alberto Pinto, Lot 31, June 30, 2022 (€22,680).
A pair of boxes, the first and the counterpart, is held at the Metropolitan Museum in New York (Inv. No. 2011.12).
Our opinion:
The pair of luxurious boxes we are presenting is exceptional because it combines two examples that were made at the same time, more than three centuries ago. A few large pieces in the "first part" and "counterpart" are known, but virtually no caskets, in particular due to divisions and other inheritances that rendered them orphaned, but also because they were often sold separately due to their very high price.
This was also the case with our caskets, which were separated for a long time before a stroke of fate allowed us to reunite them, more than three centuries after they left the workshop.
Our two caskets are all the rarer because they feature an unusual shape, with crosspieces and an ogee dome, unlike the majority of pieces of this type, which are veneered on flat surfaces.
This shape and the presence of particularly fine decoration allow us to classify them among the finest models produced at the end of the reign of Louis XIV. Although our current knowledge does not allow us to formally identify a cabinetmaker, the density, richness of the decoration, and the finesse of the engraving are comparable to the productions of BVRB I. The latter, who was practically a table-maker, made numerous caskets, dressing mirrors, and clock cases with this type of lively decoration, which was sometimes enriched with mother-of-pearl and tinted horn.
*First Part and Counterpart: By superimposing two sheets of veneer during cutting, patterns and backgrounds of two different materials were created, which were then reassembled in pairs.
The first part corresponds to the patterns from the first top sheet (often the metal one) with the background of the lower sheet (often the tortoiseshell one).
The counterpart corresponds to the patterns from the lower sheet with the background of the upper sheet.
This produces two negative marquetry compositions. The marquetry where the tortoiseshell forms the background and the copper the ornaments is the most beautiful. To obtain a symmetrical composition, the counterpart is reversed so that it becomes the symmetry of the first part.
