LEVASSEUR Etienne. Mahogany and molded mahogany veneer SECRE - Lot 295

LEVASSEUR Etienne. Mahogany and molded mahogany veneer SECRETARY with two flaps at the front. The first forms a writing desk and conceals drawers and casters. The second reveals two shelves. The front and sides are in Chinese lacquer from an 18th-century screen, gold on black depicting landscapes and figures in pagodas. The whole is framed by ormolu pearl friezes. The sides of the cabinet feature ormolu pearl frieze frames and fluting with ormolu flower falls. Breche marble top. Stamped E.LEVASSEUR, Etienne Levasseur (1721-1798), received master on December 17, 1766. Louis XVI period. H.100 W.72 D.42. Etienne Levasseur was one of the leading cabinetmakers of his time, working almost exclusively for Mercier merchants, starting with Claude-François Julliot (d. 1794), producing luxury furniture in mahogany or Japanese lacquer, and above all in Boulle marquetry, which he specialized in. His stamp appears on a large number of Louis XIV period furniture pieces in copper and tortoiseshell marquetry, which he restored during the reign of Louis XVI and are now in the Louvre and the Wallace Collection. It is possible that our cabinetmaker apprenticed around 1740 in the workshop of one of the sons of the famous André-Charles Boulle. Levasseur was sworn in as a member of his guild in 1782. Between 1785 and 1789, he delivered mahogany and walnut furniture for the Garde-meuble de la Couronne. He died on December 8, 1798, on rue du Faubourg-Saint-Antoine, where he lived. His son, Pierre-Etienne, and then his grandson, called Levasseur jeune, continued the art of Boulle marquetry in Paris until the 1820s. Provenance: Europ Auction sale March 16, 2011 N° 199 for an estimate of €150,000/200,000.