Object Description
A Fine Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Commode after a Model by Jean-François Leleu.
French, Circa 1870.
This important commode has a moulded rectangular Brocatelle Violette du Jura marble top above a frieze drawer with a pierced foliate cast panel, above two panelled long drawers quarter-veneered sans travers. The fluted angles of the commode are headed by scrolled acanthus cast clasps and it is raised on turned tapering legs with toupie feet.
The commode is based on the celebrated 18th century model, by Jean-François Leleu (1729-1807), now conserved at the Petit Trianon at Versailles. It was placed there in 1867 following an exhibition organised at the request of Empress Eugénie in memory of Queen Marie-Antoinette. The commode was further exhibited in Paris in the retrospective part of the Exposition de l’ Union centrale des arts décoratifs in 1882.