Frech buffet de chasse stamped Duval - Paris 18th century

Rare and Large solid oak buffet de chasse called "double evolution" sideboard bearing the stamp of Nicolas Duval and the mark of the Parisian Jurande.
Paris, mid 18th century.

This large sideboard, covered with a Campan marble molded with a beak, opening with two "double evolution" leaves and two knife drawers, strongly molded and architectural, made by the specialist carpenter, is the archetype of the Parisian hunting sideboard.

The impression of harmonious power that emanates from this piece of furniture, the large sections of wood used and the thick (and numerous) moldings pushed, the perfect cutting of its architecture: width of the drawers aligned with that of the small leaves, excellent proportions of the large leaves (between height and width) determining the arch and the size of the panels and sides molded in a "chapel" arch.

It is not useless to recall (without mentioning here the examples with names imprudently abused by various amateurs) that at least seventy percent of the low hunting buffets can be presumed as false, so much indeed were manufactured since the nineteenth century and until today in workshops of Paris and the North of France, from old elements of woodwork, of cupboards or sideboards with two bodies (some recovered elements already equipped with the double evolution, others entirely remade, fittings included) of the specimens "similar" to those, become very rare, furnishing formerly the large properties, the hunting lodges and especially the castles of the Island of France and sometimes even those of province.

The presence of its old marble, the Duval stamp and the Jurande hallmark are elements that reinforce, after thorough examination of the frame of the piece, our absolute certainty about its authenticity. We will also see an old label from a trip to the northwest of Sologne, a country rich in castles and hunting lodges as everyone knows.

The piece of furniture is topped with a red Griotte de Campan marble and opens with two drawers fitted with their old iron knobs and two broken leaves, this double folding arrangement allowing the doors to be opened to the maximum and even folded to the side, and this with a double purpose of presentation as well as service of the dishes, silver plates and tableware that were stored there. Let us even specify that it was in the XVIIIth century very much in use to leave the sideboard doors wide open during the meal, and Roubo describes this habit by underlining that it was practiced "more however by ostentation than by necessity". It is easy to understand, in front of this piece of furniture of a castle of more than one meter sixty wide, that the double evolution is jointly born from a concern of maintaining the squareness of the leaves. Our example still takes up the main characteristics of the Parisian sideboard in its pure classicism inherited from the Grand Siècle: elongated arch of the doors and thick moldings with frame, base with plinth, narrow and deep drawers called "with knives", because indeed intended to receive the knives used for the cutting of the game, from where the name of the piece of furniture.

The red Campan marble comes from the town of Campan in the Hautes-Pyrénées whose exploitation dates back to antiquity.
Note the remarkable peculiarity of our marble which presents two facies in the same mass (Griotte de Campan red in the left part - Rosé des Pyrénées in the right part). In his book Utilisation des marbres, Jacques Dubarry de Lassale illustrates this phenomenon (page 19) which is explained by the fact that the quarries are never perfectly homogeneous (one can sometimes pass from one appellation to another in the same flow).


All original fittings :
eight hinges, two knobs,
four interior hinges cut out,
a big lock and its beautiful key on the right leaf,
an espagnolette on the left,
two lock entries with rooster heads.

Piece of furniture entirely made in solid oak of high forest (including the frame and its fonçures).
Very good original condition of the whole.
Small restorations of use.
Marble restored.

Furniture perfectly restored by our carpenter.
Deep waxed finish.

Provenance : Viscount B. Macé de Gastines.

Parisian work of the Louis XV period, mid 18th century.