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A rare and beautiful Louis XV black, gold and red Chinese lacquer encoignure by Mathieu Criaerd, stamped M CRIAERD, the serpentine-fronted triangular grey marble top above a two door bombé front decorated overall with Chinese garden landscapes with pagodas, rocks, chinoiserie figures, sedan, exotic trees and flowers, surrounded by a foliate scrolled border interspersed with rosettes, above a shaped apron with gold lacquered rocaille cartouche, on hipped cabriole legs terminating in gilt bronze foliate scrolled sabots
Paris, date circa 1740-45
Height 95 cm, width 75 cm, depth 50 cm.
This beautiful piece dates from Criaerd’s early career during which he specialized in the production of commodes and encoignures decorated with Chinese and Coromandel lacquer as well as vernis Martin. The overall shape and design relates to another exceptional encoignure decorated with blue and white vernis Martin with silvered mounts for use in Mlle de Mailly’s apartment at the Château de Choisy (Musée du Louvre, Paris; illustrated Pierre Kjellberg, “Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe Siècle”, 1998, p. 216). On the other hand, the Oriental lacquered decoration and lack of gilt mounts on the main body compares more closely to Criaerd’s commode illustrated in Kjellberg, ibid. p. 217. The author illustrates a number of other Oriental lacquered commodes by Criaerd, (as does Alexandre Pradère, “French Furniture Makers”, 1989, p. 222) which all feature characteristic indented gilt mounts. However, the intrinsic beauty of the present piece lies in its startling polychrome lacquered decoration and as such perfectly demonstrates Criaerd’s supreme command of his medium.
Mathieu Criaerd (1689-1776) was the most distinguished member of a large family of Parisian ébénistes. Little is known of his early years except that he was born in about 1689, the son of a bourgeois from Brussels. The first record of his appearance in Paris was his marriage in September 1721 to Jacqueline Godelart. Both her father and grandfather were ébénistes from the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, where the young Criaerds also settled and remained all their lives. By 1723, Mathieu had set up business in rue Saint-Nicolas and then moved in 1732 to rue Traversière. It was only in 1738 at the age of 49 that he was received as a Parisian maître.
During the 1740’s, Criaerd worked for the marchand-mercier Thomas-Joachim Hébert, through whom he supplied the aforementioned magnificent encoignure and matching commode for the king’s mistress, Mlle de Mailly at Choisy. This commission may have led to the introduction of Hébert as a purveyor of furniture to the court and brought Criaerd to the attention of wealthy clients. Other similar commissions included a kingwood commode supplied by Hébert in 1748 to the cabinet of the Dauphin at Versailles, where it still remains. In addition, Criaerd supplied Antoine-Robert Gaudreaus and between 1755-65 worked for Gilles Joubert who had succeeded Hébert and Gaudreaus as suppliers to the Garde-Meuble Royal. Among more important deliveries to Joubert, in 1754 Criaerd supplied a tulipwood commode with characteristic indented mounts for Château de la Muette as well as a night table supplied in 1755 for Mme de Pompadour at Choisy (Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris). Other deliveries included a small encoignure of 1756 for the Dauphin at Compiègne (Musée de Saumur) and in 1768 a small writing table for the Comptroller General. As an indication of Criaerd’s high standing, he is known to have supplied a number of pieces to J. -F. Oeben, the great ébéniste du Roi.
After an illustrious career, Criaerd retired in 1770, whereupon he sold his stock and equipment to his second son Sébastien-Mathieu (1732-96) who worked as both ébéniste and dealer and with whom Criaerd Snr lived for a while. But after numerous disagreements the latter then went to live with his eldest son Antoine-Mathieu (1724-87) who had established his own flourish business specializing in the production of luxury furniture. It was at his house in rue de Grenelle that Mathieu Criaerd died during the early months of 1776.
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