Louis XV Furniture & Ceramics @ Sotheby's New York

A Louis XV ormolu-mounted tulipwood, fruitwood and marquetry secrétaire de dame à abattant, attributed to RVLC, circa 1760. photo courtesy Sotheby's

114 cm; 63.5 cm; 37.5 cm. Est. 30,000—50,000 USD. Lot Sold 74,500 USD

NOTE: This secrétaire de dame belongs to a small group of nearly identical pieces stamped by or attributed to Roger Vandercruse. These include one stamped RVLC and formerly in the Dutasta Collection and another attributed to the maker in the Musée du Louvre, see Clarisse Roinet, Roger Vandercruse dit La Croix, Paris, 2000, pp. 58-59 and Pierre Kjellberg, Mobilier français du XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 2002, p. 787. There are a number of similarities these pieces share with the secrétaire offered here, such as the matching form, the similar corner and identical feet mounts and escutcheons and the relatively small size. The Dutasta piece is also decorated with marquetry panels on its sides that feature a framework composed of elongated rinceaux enclosing bouquets that can be found on this secrétaire. The interiors of these three works share additional similarities: the geometric parquetry fretwork that enclose single flowers in the lower section and the set of identically-decorated elongated parquetry drawers in the upper section. Furthermore, the piece deriving from the Dutasta collection and that in the Louvre feature tambour doors, with which this secrétaire was also fitted originally and signs of which can be found in the oak carcass of the upper section.

A Louis XV ormolu-mounted kingwood, tulipwood and marquetry table en chiffonnière, circa 1750, stamped Delorme. photo courtesy Sotheby's

69.5 cm; 29.5 cm; 24.5 cm. Est. 15,000—25,000 USD. Lot Sold 68,500 USD

NOTE: A table with identical marquetry inlay and ormolu corner mounts was sold The Alexander Collection, Christie's New York, 30 April, 1999, lot 69. Interestingly, that table bore the stamp of the ébéniste Péridiez and not that of Adrien Delorme. A number of other tables of this form with comparable marquetry and ormolu mounts are known today; some stamped by Delorme, some by Péridiez and some by yet another maker: Adrien-Antoine Gosselin. Tables stamped by Delorme include one from the collection of Elinor Dorrance Ingersoll, sold Christie's New York, 11 November 1977, lot 151, and another -fitted with ormolu carrying-handles- now in the Louvre and originally given by Louis XV's wife, Maria Leszcynska to the gouvernante des Enfants de France, Madam Campan, see Guillaume Janneau, Le Mobilier Français: Le Meuble L'Ebénisterie, Paris, 1989, fig. 95. Tables by Péridiez include the abovementioned piece from the Alexander Collection and one with a pierced ormolu gallery in the Huntington Collection. A table of this model, but with different marquetry, stamped by Gosselin is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, see F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection, Vol. 1, New York, 1966, pp. 272-273, while another was sold Christie's New York, 4 November 1992, lot 93. It is likely that Delorme was stamping these pieces in his capacity of a marchand and not as an ébéniste.

A Louis XV ormolu-mounted tulipwood, fruitwood and marquetry table en chiffonnière, circa 1750, with label inscribed Delorme. photo courtesy Sotheby's

69 cm; 30.5 cm; 24.5 cm. Est. 20,000—30,000 USD. Lot Sold 43,750 USD

A pair of Louis XV porcelain-mounted and green-painted ormolu candlesticks, circa 1745. photo courtesy Sotheby's

25.5 cm. Est. 20,000—30,000 USD. Lot Sold 59,375 USD

NOTE: A pair of very similar ormolu candlesticks of approximately the same height struck with the C couronné poinçon and decorated with Chinese Kang Shi porcelain figures of seated parrots in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, is illustrated P. Verlet, Les Bronzes dorés français du XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1987, p. 98, fig. 108. Another similar at Waddesdon Manor, is illustrated G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, Vol.1, London, 1978, no. 173.

A Louis XV ormolu-mounted kingwood and tulipwood meuble en-cas, attributed to L. Boudin, circa 1765. photo courtesy Sotheby's

74 cm; 34 cm; 52.5 cm. Est. 20,000—30,000 USD. Lot Sold 27,500 USD

An early Louis XV ormolu-mounted tulipwood, kingwood and parquetry commode, circa 1735, stamped twice C. Thibault, remounted. photo courtesy Sotheby's

84 cm; 131 cm; 62.5 cm. Est. ,000—7,000 USD.. Lot Sold 20,000 USD

LITERATURE AND REFERENCES: R. Constantino, How to Know French Antiques, New York, 1961, p. 52.

An early Louis XV carved giltwood tabouret, circa 1735. photo courtesy Sotheby's

44.5 cm; 51 cm; 38.5 cm. Est. 5,000—7,000 USD. Lot Sold 10,000 USD

A Louis XV carved oak console table, circa 1740. photo courtesy Sotheby's

81.5 cm; 117 cm; 61 cm. Est. 5,000—8,000 USD. Lot Sold 6,250 USD

Sotheby's. Important French Furniture, Ceramics and Carpets including Property from the Estate of Mrs. Robert Lehman, 18 Nov 10, New York www.sothebys.com