 |
RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
 |
|
|
RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
|
|
A very fine Louis XV Transitional Louis XVI inlaid bois de rose, bois de violette and amaranth petite table de salon by Jacques-Laurent Cosson, stamped J L COSSON, the rectangular brêche d’Alep marble top with three quarter pierced brass gallery above three drawers inlaid with foliage and flowers and centred by scrolling escutcheons above a dished apron decorated with a rocaille scrolled mount, the inwardly sweeping sides with inlaid foliate and flowers within a shaped panel on outwardly sweeping cabriole legs terminated by foliate scrolls on castors Paris, date circa 1765-70 Height 69 cm, width 44 cm, depth 29 cm. As his career progressed Jacques-Laurent Cosson’s (1737-1812) style changed from the Louis XV to the Transitional (e.g. an oval bois de rose table in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris) and emerged into the more fully developed classical Louis XVI style (e.g. a bois de rose and bois de violette secrétaire in the Musée du Louvre, Paris) During this time he produced a wide range of pieces from commodes, bureaux plats, bureaux à cylinder, bureaux à table avec serre-papiers, tables de salon and tables de nuit to secrétaires, encoignures, chiffonniers and bibliothèques. Born in 1737 Cosson was received as a maître ébéniste in September 1765 and later in 1784 became a conseilleur of the corporation des Menuisiers-Ebénistes. Cosson had a workshop in rue de Charonne at the sign of Louis XIV ou du Grand Monarque. Cosson sometimes worked for the tapissiers including Frères Presle but more often worked for fellow colleagues especially Pierre Migeon as well as Louis Moreau (maître d. 1791). The latter along with Roger Vandercruse known as R.V.L.C. (1728-99) valued Cosson’s atelier after the death of his wife in 1782. The inventory included a variety of furniture made from wide range of luxurious woods implying the importance of his atelier at that time. They included as here bois de rose, bois de violette and amaranth as well as bois satiné, mahogany and others. Cosson’s decorative techniques were as varied as his productions, thus one finds pieces decorated in floral and less frequently in geometric and figurative marquetry. As here Cosson’s marquetry was usually contained within discreet panels and generally featured flowers and foliage which was often offset by his clever use of high quality plain veneers as also demonstrated on a small oval Transitional table once in the Wrightsman collection (illustrated in Pierre Kjellberg, “Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe Siècle”, 1998, p. 188). Some pieces were ornamented with imitation Coromandel lacquer while others, especially his later Louis XVI works relied on the beauty of plain veneers as evidenced by a mahogany commode and pair of encoignures from the collection of Espirito Santo, sold Paris 14th June 1955. On rare occasions Cosson also decorated his pieces with Sèvres porcelain plaques such as a secrétaire (sold Paris 1987) featuring a Sèvres farmyard scene (identical to one on another secrétaire by André Schumann in the Wallace Collection, London). Among his better know pieces is a table in the Jones Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum London which is inlaid in ivory and a variety of woods with elaborate pictorial marquetry figures in a garden. The table also bears the stamps of Daniel Deloose (maître 1767 d. 1788) and Georges Jansen (b. 1726 maître 1767), the latter possibly responsible for the marquetry since similar marquetry appeared on a large bureau bearing Jansen’s stamp (collection of the dealer E.M Hodgkins, early twentieth century) In May 1780 Cosson married Marie-Nicole Mansion (d. 1782), daughter of Claude Mansion but no relation of the family of ébénistes of the same name. They had a daughter and then a son, Jean-François who was probably the same ébéniste who worked in the Faubourg-Saint-Antoine 1822-30 and later in 1839 was recorded at rue des Filles-du-Calvaire. |