THURSDAY 16 JUNE 2016 – 2PM
Discovery of a Landmark
In 18th Century Design
Rare Bureau Plat assigned
to the States General,
attributed to Noël Gérard
(1685-1736)
VIEWING
Monday 13 June 2016, 10am–7pm
Tuesday 14 June 2016, 10am–7pm
Wednesday 15 June 2016, 10am–7pm
PRESS
Isabelle de Puysegur
Tel / fax : +33 1 45 49 17 97
[email protected]
PIASA
118 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré
75008 Paris - France
PRESS RELEASE
www. PIASA.fr
A DESIGN OF TIMELESS ELEGANCE
The PIASA sale of Jewellery, Old Master Paintings & Drawings, Furniture &
Objets d’Art on 16 June 2016 (with Pierre-François Dayot officiating as expert
for the latter two specialities) will feature a remarkable, ormolu-mounted,
ebonized pearwood Régence bureau plat attributed to Noël Gérard.
When the multi-legged Bureau Mazarin fell out of fashion after 1700, cabinet-makers
sought to design a new style of desk. In 1710 André Charles Boulle (1642-1732)
definitively abandoned existing models and conceived an extended form of writingtable known as a bureau plat, whose main challenge lay in the relationship between
the size of the desk-top and the reduced number of legs. Other cabinet-makers would
follow Boulle’s lead in making four-legged, large-topped desks throughout the 18th
century.
The bureau plat to be offered at PIASA belongs to a group of several desks of similar
design, shape, decoration and technique, including the one stamped NG in the
Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio (cf A. Pradère: Les Ebénistes Français de Louis XIV à la
Révolution, p.112); one now in the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal in Paris, thought to have
been owned by the Duchesse du Maine; and three in Bavaria – in the Bayerisches
Museum in Munich, the Neue Residenz in Bamberg, and the Residenz in Ansbach
(formerly owned by the Margraves of Brandenburg).
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All these desks share such decorative motifs as openwork palmettes, listels flanking the
central drawer, and double- or triple-banded copper inlay; all are veneered exclusively
in ebonized pearwood.
The presence of our desk in the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne (royal furniture depository)
towards the end of the Ancien Régime, along with the number 439, suggests either that
it entered the Garde-Meuble after 1739 – when delivery numbers were first applied
– or that it was one of the small number of orders paid for by the Privy Purse for the
Bâtiments, Arts et Manufacture du Roi.
The ASSNAT Brandmark of the Constituent National Assembly
On 5 May 1789 the King, Queen, Dauphin and Princes welcomed the States General
to Versailles in great pomp. The three Estates soon voted to merge into a single body, which
took the name of Constituent National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale Constituante)
on July 9.
The arrival of the King, Court, Government and Assembly itself in a sparsely
furnished building caused material problems which the Garde-Meuble, MenusPlaisirs and Bâtiments du Roi were enjoined to resolve. All the furniture supplied for
the occasion must, therefore, have already belonged to the Crown.
By 1791, and in line with customary Garde-Meuble practice, the limited number
of items provided for the new Assemblée Nationale received a special mark in the
form of the abbreviated name of the body to which they were assigned – hence
the ASSNAT brandmark on the central part of the desk’s rear frieze.
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Ormolu-mounted, ebonized pearwood Régence Bureau Plat (c.1725)
attributed to Noël Gérard (qualified as Master circa 1711)
bearing the brandmark ASSNAT (for Assemblée Nationale) and the number 439 (in ink)
Provenance
– probably Garde-Meuble de la Couronne
– assigned to the States General after the creation of the National Constituent Assembly
78 x 179 x 94.5cm
est. €50,000-80,000
Two-sided bureau plat with four cabriolet legs; three drawers on one side (the central
drawer slightly recessed) and a single drawer on the other; red morocco top with
moulded bronze rim. Veneered throughout in ebonized pearwood. Banded copper
inlay defining the contours of the desk and panels. Sumptuous ormolu mounts
including handles, rosettes, lock-plates and listels; palmettes at each end; corner
chutes in the form of acanthus-crowned satyr-masks with short floral pendants; and
deer-hoof sabots topped by acanthus leaves.
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NOËL GERARD ( 1685-1736)
Noël Gérard was born in Pontoise,
the elder half-brother of Jacques and
Louis Dubois. He qualified as Master
around 1711 after his marriage to Marie
Collin, the widow of the ébéniste Jean
Chrétien. Gérard took over Chrétien’s
Faubourg St-Antoine workshop,
Au C a b i n e t d ’A l l e m a g n e , a n d
considerably expanded its activity. On
15 February 1725 he took over the rights
of privilege accorded by Louis XV to
Hubert Houdart and David Crosne,
permitting them to sell furniture
as a Magasin Général in the Hôtel
Jabach (decorated by Mignard). The
contract stipulated that Noël Gérard
ensure the ‘said magasin be richly and
abundantly supplied, with always at
least one hundred and fifty thousand
livres of stock.’ Gérard moved his
workshop here and, although he often
sub-contracted orders he received, it
boasted six work-benches at the time
of his death – when the inventory
described his stock as sizable and
exceptionally varied, and worth over
565,000 livres.
Gérard’s clients included the Ambassadors of Saxony, England and Spain; the Comte
de Clermont, Prince of the Blood (who bought furniture to the value of 130,000 livres);
King Stanislas Leczynski; and the Princes de Carignan.
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Thursday 16 June 2016 – 2pm
Jewellery, Old Master Paintings & Drawings, Furniture
& Objets d’Art
Department of Furniture & Objets d’Art
Pascale Humbert
Tel : 33 1 53 34 10 19
[email protected]
Jewellery Department
Dora Blary
Tel : 33 1 53 34 13 30
[email protected]
Department of Old Master Paintings & Drawings
Guila Ponti
Tel : 33 1 53 34 12 38
[email protected]
Viewing
Monday 13 June 2016, 10am–7pm
Tuesday 14 June 2016, 10am–7pm
Wednesday 15 June 2016, 10am–7pm
Press
Isabelle de Puysegur
Tel / fax : +33 1 45 49 17 97
[email protected]
PIASA
118 rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré
75008 Paris - France
www.piasa.fr
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