A solid walnut Provençal commode mid 18th century, circa 1740

Provençal chest of drawers, "sauteuse" Nîmoise "sauteuse" in solid wood of walnut heart of the Rhone Valley carved, molded and waxed. Of rectangular form opens in its face by two drawers superimposed perfectly fit the curve of its frame. Both receiving an equally generous and elegant work of large and deep moldings in the form of three polylobed cartridges, in tile for the middle part, long at the ends. Each is adorned with typical gilded bronzes at the Nîmois chests of the great century. An ovoid plate topped with a plume, symmetrically flapped acanthus interlacing on a foliage finial centered all the center of a strongly marked lock entry for the median cartridge. Two heavy flowing handles with facets and cut sides on cylindrical eyelets with threads for those on the sides. As it should be in Nîmoise cabinetmaking, the frieze carved is of course entirely openwork, there asymmetric fire flower, interlacing, acanthus and foliage. The amounts are straight, quadrilaterals punctuated by windings perched on a small hoof for the hindquarters; in an arc of a circle brought up with large and fat moldings treated in protruding elegies for the anterior ones. This punctuated with foliate-warpped S-scroll legs fine and racy shoulders adorned with ribbed protruding ribbon, descending on their instep as fine as nerve punctuated by deep and opulent volutes perched on small hooves. Each side is centered with a large asymmetric cartridge with vertically flat and laterally sinuous flats. The whole is capped with a monoxyle wood top where runs on the periphery a beak of corbin refined at the bottom part of a gorge in order to purify the visual. This work, so specific to Provençal masters, gives this type of chest of drawers all its letters of nobility; we find the exuberance of the south combined with the theatrical taste of Italian magnificence.
Observation: it should be noted the quality of the choice of walnut used, a heart of walnut son, dense grains, very tight almost devoid of veining, associated with the quality of the bronzes as the finesse of their carving, all we indicates the financial ease of the sponsor who has not skimped the expense for this piece of furniture devoted to a reception lounge. In addition, the old patina of natural wood allows to appreciate all the gouge of the sculptor, which it highlights. Restorations of use and maintenance such as cleaning, treatment and patina but two small wrinkles of time are to report, a small graft at the right rear end on a plateau and a tip of the feet. Very special work of masters nîmois Louis XV period of the first part of the eighteenth century, around 1740. Dimensions: Length 127cm, Depth 65cm and Height 92cm.