BY ALBERT CHEN

Two mahogany commodes with a remarkable connection to Madame de Pompadour fetched €229,000 at Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr in Paris earlier this year. Stamped J. F. Oeben and dating to around 1760, the pair ranked among the leading results of the Classics decorative arts sale. Bonhams described them as almost certainly delivered to the Marquise for her Château de Ménars. The sale price includes buyer’s premium.

Their attraction extends beyond that illustrious association. Broad mahogany surfaces, gilt-metal handles and Rouge Royal marble tops combine warmth with architectural restraint. The design is described as à la grecque, reflecting the move towards a classical vocabulary in French interiors. Each commode measures 146 centimetres wide, 58 centimetres deep and 83 centimetres high, giving the pair a scale suited to an ambitious decorative scheme.

Furniture Made for a New Taste

Pompadour acquired Ménars in 1760 and set about reshaping its interiors with leading designers and craftsmen. Bonhams places these commodes within that story of changing taste, as the fashionable curves of Rococo gave ground to the emerging neoclassical style. Its catalogue discusses a group of seventeen related chests of drawers associated with Oeben’s commissions for Pompadour, whose enthusiasm for innovation extended from the appearance of furniture to the sophistication of its construction.

The pair’s practical ingenuity is part of that appeal. An arrangement of interior flaps connects the upper drawer with the side drawers, concealing a more complex system beneath an orderly façade. Their later provenance includes the Guy-Louis Duboucheron collection, a Pierre Cornette de Saint Cyr auction in 1995, and a Brussels private collection where they passed down through the family. At €229,000, the result shows how fine furniture can unite a compelling historical association with the enduring appeal of beautifully resolved design.

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Source: Bonhams.

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