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A very fine Louis XVI gilt bronze mounted mahogany bureau plat by Louis Moreau, stamped L MOREAU and JME, the eared rectangular top with a gilt tooled red leather lined writing surface above a panelled frieze with central drawer above a knee-hole flanked by two short drawers on either side, the sides fitted with red leather-lined writing slides, the corners mounted by turned fluted pilasters on tapering fluted legs terminating in turned caps
Paris, date circa 1780
Height 77.5 cm, length 162 cm, depth 76.5 cm
The writing slides: width 61 cm, depth 39 cm. each.
Literature: Giacomo Wannenes, “Eighteenth Century French Furniture”, p. 273, illustrating a very similar bureau plat bearing the stamp of Jean-Henri Riesener.
In 1762 the ébéniste, Denis Genty (maître 1754) was forced into bankruptcy at which point Louis Moreau (d. 1791) took over his Paris shop in rue de l’Echelle-Saint-Honoré known as ‘A la descente des Tuileries’ and renamed it ‘A la Petite Boule Blanche’. Two years later Moreau was received as a maître-ébéniste and continued to enjoy a thriving business. He supplied a number of the aristocracy with fine pieces of furniture and also supplied the royal court through the intermediary of the Menus-Plaisirs. Like Genty, Moreau made many of his own pieces but also retailed works supplied by other leading Parisian makers, notably Foullet, Jacques Bircklé, Charles Topino and Léonard Boudin. The latter supplied him with a number of pieces with floral marquetry and chinoiserie lacquer. Because of the number of different of suppliers, pieces sold and stamped by Moreau exhibited a varied style. However from evidence on a label on a mahogany piece made by Moreau we know that he made a number of pieces in his own workshop. These included secrétaires, bureaux à cylindre, tables de jouer, armoires, commodes and anything concerning the Parisian ébénisterie and interestingly the menuiserie trade. For though was an ébéniste, Moreau like Garnier and Cosson also made a number of chairs after about 1778.
As here, some of his finest Louis XVI pieces featured strong vigorous lines, decorated with a rich mahogany veneer and heightened with bold, yet restrained gilt bronze mounts. As such the present piece compares in style with a bonheur du jour by Moreau, previously sold by this gallery (illustrated in Richard Redding, “25th Anniversary”, 2002, pp. 234-5). During his early career Moreau’s workshop produced a variety of Louis XV pieces including beautiful Oriental lacquered and inlaid commodes, consoles, sideboards and writing desks. In keeping with fashion he then produced furniture in the Transitional style ornamented with a variety of marquetry motifs, from flowers to trophies. Other pieces by him were decorated with geometric marquetry, such as a beautiful Transitional commode in the Kress Collection at the Metropolitan Museum, New York. After Moreau’s death his workshop was continued by his widow and subsequently his son, who worked from rue Saint-Honoré near to the Place Vendôme where he remained up until the end of the Empire.
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