Work and writing table

This work and writing table with a shaped rectangular top is supported by four slender cabriole legs joined midway by a shelf, with a tiny leather-lined writing slide in front above a drawer and another drawer on the right side fitted for writing materials. The top is veneered on a ground of quartered tulipwood with a central rectangular reserve of quartered tulipwood framed by tulipwood in contrasting direction, surrounded by cube marquetry framed by a border with Greek-key fret design. The whole top has a gilt-bronze molding with a Greek-key fret gallery on three sides. The four sides of the table are veneered with cube marquetry of the same design as the top, framed by a border of Greek-key fret. The shelf is veneered with cube marquetry framed by radiating tulipwood with the same gilt-bronze border as the top but with a Greek-key fret gallery on four sides. The legs are veneered with tulipwood banded with amaranth, each leg mounted with a scrolled cartouche above the knee and an acanthus scroll at the foot. The transitional Louis XV – XVI style of this table and the prominent use of cube and Greek-key fret motifs in the marquetry suggest that it was made during the early part of Boudin’s career, during the decade after he became a maître in 1761.(1) He later gave up cabinetmaking and became a furniture dealer and upholsterer, calling himself marchand-ébéniste, and selling furniture by numerous cabinetmakers, including Bircklé, Chevallier, Cordié, Dubois, Evalde, Fléchy, Foullet, Gilbert, Latz, Letellier, Macret, Peridiez, and Topino. The table was in the collection of Henri de Rothschild, probably during the time that he lived in the newly built Château de la Muette in the rue André-Pascal in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, from 1924 until his death in 1947. It was then acquired by Duveen Brothers, which sold it to Robert Lehman in May 1956.(2)

Catalogue entry from: William Rieder. The Robert Lehman Collection. Decorative Arts, Vol. XV. Wolfram Koeppe, et al. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2012, pp. 266 -- 267.

NOTES:
1. For information on Boudin, see Salverte, Francois de, comte. Les ébénistes du XVIIIe siecle: Leurs oeuvres et leurs marques. 5th ed. Paris, 1962, pp. 31 – 32; Lemonnier, Patricia. “Boudin: Ebeniste et marchand.” L‘estampille / L’objet d’art, no. 226 (June) 1989, pp. 38 – 43; Pradère, Alexandre. French Furniture Makers: The Art of the Ébéniste from Louis XIV to the Revolution. London, 1989. [Translation of Les ébénistes français: De Louis XIV a la Révolution. Paris, 1989.], p. 271.
2. Duveen Brothers invoice dated 11 May 1956 (Robert Lehman papers, Metropolitan Museum of Art).

Baron Henri de Rothschild (1872-1947), Paris; [Duveen Brothers, New York]. Acquired by Robert Lehman through Duveen in May 1956.