Transition between China and Greece

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

Concerning a commode stamped by Delorme, I discussed here last year about the early stages of Parisian commodes ornated with Chinese design lacquered panels. This theme is often associated quite rightly with the Louis XV style, the luxury furniture par excellence in the eighteenth century.

Then came the style now called Transition Louis XV - Louis XVI, better named "à la Grecque" when it was developed in the years 1760s and 1770s. The curve disappears, replaced by an austere geometry hardly interrupted by a central projection and which not yet showed the admirable flexibility of the Louis XVI.

Ornamentation can still be luxurious in the Transition commodes, as demonstrated on a copy which was made about 1775 by Dester. It is adorned with Chinese lacquer on all sides as well as à la grecque friezes and quality bronzes. Koller sell this furniture of typical Transition shape but rare quality in Zurich on September 17. It is estimated 420 KCHF.

The catalog raises the interesting question currently unanswered of the origin of lacquered panels on such later models. At the beginning of the Louis XV period, most of these panels were probably made in the Far East to be exported to France, but at the time of Dester they were more likely predominantly produced by Parisian workshops.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

Unsold. The market of French furniture from the eighteenth century is still far out of its crisis, which is lasting for several years.