French commode with bronzes with the "R" crowned

Remarkable chest of drawers made of native and stained wood veneer.
Bronzes with "R" Crowned
Lyon, circa 1740


Note commode is a copy of the beautiful and very rare commodes sometimes presented to amateurs and collectors of the Rhône-Alpes region and more precisely of Lyon.

The origin of their provenance, still too unknown, gives only an uncertain attribution to this workshop: Grenoble, Hache, Switzerland, Eastern France, or the Lyon area.

It seems interesting to us to characterize this approach, not by a technical or artistic analysis of these pieces, but by logical remarks, with regard to the particularities of the production of these various regions.

GEOGRAPHICAL SITUATION :
Be tempted to see a similarity with the production of Pierre Hache?
No, because they are two entities with a fundamentally different aesthetic creative spirit.

- Differences in the application of their know-how :

- Axe:
He did not inscribe a compass rose on the decoration of the chest of drawers.
- Never any hanging handles from Lyon at Hache.
- The liveliness, the playfulness of colors are absent at Pierre Hache.

- The cabinetmaker of our chest of drawers:
He created a structural and decorative dynamic that we do not find in Grenoble for this period.
- He is known for his use of a unique wood for the entire structure and drawers of his chests of drawers: fir.
- The piriform hearts in spandrels of the tray are significant of his art.
- The presence of the crowned "R" struck on certain bronzes does not seem to have been reported in Pierre Hache's work.

In spite of the perfect equalization of the work of the two workshops, "the spirit" and "the hand" are absolutely different but complementary for their creativity. They ennoble the regional cabinet making of the XVIII° century.

In conclusion :
- A foreign work is discarded:
The construction techniques are purely French.
Switzerland ? no, for its confused forms and for its proportions of Germanic spirit as well as for the wood section. Not to be confused with the French XVIII° century.
- A work assimilated to the workshops of the Hache:
It is also discarded as we have seen.
- Only a regional work from Lyon or from its east / north-east zone of influence seems to us the most defensible and the most credible.
The hanging hands of our chest of drawers are from Lyon and well of origin, circa 1740.
These chests of drawers were marketed mainly in Lyon or its region.

ITS CONSTRUCTION :
In false tomb, our chest of drawers is curved on three sides. The wide and very interesting front uprights are pinched. It opens by three long drawers separated by visible dark brass grooved crosspieces.

The bottoms of the drawers are in front and back rabbets, the sides pointed flat joined.
The separation panels (dust covers) are complete.
The top is glued flat with a flat joint.
The rear bottoms are panel-mounted, i.e. two crosspieces, two uprights, three panels with mortise and tenon joints.
Its structure presents the classic assembly of the French cabinet making of the XVIII° century.
A very careful construction following the example of the Axe works in Grenoble.

- The top is girdled with its moulded ingot mould, cast and brazed.
- Drop handles are "to the jacks".
- The wide lock entries are "ball and socket".
- The very particular falls are recurrent, they are the "signature" of this master's production. We find them on the models illustrating the research of Mr. Bernard DELOCHE on the workshop of this innovative master cabinetmaker still too little known (Bernard DELOCHE, Jean-Yves MORNAND, in L'Ebénisterie provinciale en France au XVIII° siècle, Editions Faton, p.107 to 111).

Structure :
- Monobois : fir tree for all the structure and drawers
The veneer :
- walnut wood
- of natural ash
- plum tree
- of ebony threads
- sycamore (maple)
- boxwood fillets