Lot 64: A LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD AND FLORAL MARQUETRY TABLE EN CHIFFONNIERE

A LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD AND FLORAL MARQUETRY TABLE EN CHIFFONNIERE
BY PIERRE DENIZOT AND GERARD PERIDIEZ, CIRCA 1761-65, PREVIOUSLY WITH A TAMBOUR AND LATER ADAPTED AS A DRAWER
The shaped eared top inlaid with musical trophies, the bombé sides with floral sprays, with frieze drawer and a later further drawer beneath, on cabriole legs headed by scrolled clasps and on rocaille sabots, stamped G PERIDIEZ and P DENIZOT, restorations, the frieze drawer previously with slide and encrier, the later drawer previously a tambour with fitted interior
28¾ in. (73 cm.) high; 20 in. (51 cm.) wide; 14 in. (35.5 cm.) deep

Probably Mrs. Meyer Sassoon.
Mrs. Derek Fitzgerald, sold Sotheby's London, 30 April 1965, lot 129.
The late Sir Charles Clore, sold Christie's Monaco, 6 December 1985, lot 44.

Pierre Denizot, maître in 1740.
Gérard Peridiez, maître in 1761.

This elegant table is embellished with delicate floral marquetry and epitomises the fashion for small tables ambulantes during the height of the rococo. Intriguingly, the table is stamped by Denizot and Peridiez, who both worked in a similar fashion in the early 1760s. Although Denizot received his maîtrise by 1740, he did not register as such until 1760, which is when he first stamped his furniture. Peridiez became master one year later and the present table would appear to have been made between 1761 and approximately 1765. The appearance of two stamps is not unusual on French 18th century furniture. This generally implies that a piece was first stamped by the ébéniste responsible for making the piece and then by the marchand or marchand-ébéniste who sold it. Leonard Boudin, for instance, was active as the latter, in these years. However, neither Denizot or Peridiez are known to have been active as a dealer.
The collections of Mrs. Meyer Sassoon at Pope's Manor, Bracknell, Berkshire, were largely formed through her purchases in Paris in the early 1900s. These were similar to those made by her cousins, Sybil and Philip Sassoon at approximately the same time. They consisted of beautiful marquetry furniture, mainly Louis XV and Louis XVI pieces of compact scale and exquisite crafstmanship, giltwood menuiserie, needlework seat-furniture, Sèvres and Meissen porcelain and French old master pictures. These were inherited by her daughter, Mrs. Derek Fitzgerald of Heathfield Park, Sussex, who herself made many splendid purchases of a more English nature, and her collections were dispersed in various sales in the 1960s and early 1970s.