Bureau Mazarin
attributed to Nicolas Sageot (1666-1731)
Category
Furniture
Date
1695 - 1710
Materials
Brass and tortoiseshell marquetry on deal, cast ormolu mounts, deal construction
Measurements
80 x 131.5 x 69 cm
Place of origin
Paris
Order this imageCollection
Felbrigg, Norfolk
NT 1398377
Summary
A tortoiseshell, brass inlaid and ormolu mounted 'Boulle' kneehole desk or bureau Mazarin, attributed to Nicolas Sageot (1666-1731) Paris, circa 1700 The rectangular top with cast brass edge and veneered with première partie marquetry depicting a central pavilion with dancing figures, musicians and performers. With further figural scenes and with arabesques and trailing scrolling foliage. With seven drawers to the kneehole which also incorporates a recess with a hinged front. The square section tapered legs joined by twin shaped X stretchers and terminating on brass feet, The sides and drawer fronts also inlaid with figures scrolls and trailing foliage.
Full description
This desk is very similar to a desk stamped by Nicolas Sageot in the Royal Collection, Stockholm. Another comparable example of identical form with shaped aprons and nearly identical marquetry, also attributed to Nicolas Sageot, is in the Ermitage Museum, St Petersburg (from the Roudanovski collection). Nicolas Sageot, was born in 1666. His atelier was probably active from 1690, though the first records date from 1698 when he employed two workers. Sageot worked until 1706 as an ouvrier libre, before his appointment as maître in 1706, and was based in the faubourg Saint-Antoine. He evidently rapidly expanded his business, as by 1711 he had 12,000 livres, almost all in stock-in-trade. The extensive nature of his business is revealed by the sale in 1720 to Léonard Prieur 'Marchand Mercier Grossier Joaillier Priviligié suivant la Cour' of 16,000 livres of furniture, consisting of a wide range of armoires, bureaux and commodes and amongst which were several 'armoires à dôme' in brass-inlaid tortoiseshell, valued between 400 and 1000 livres. Retiring on 26 July 1720 he sold 16,000 livres worth of furniture, all of which was decorated with brass and tortoiseshell marquetry. P. Grand, 'Le Mobilier Boulle et les ateliers de l'époque', L'Estampille L'Objet d'Art, February, 1993, pp. 50 See also NT485368 for a similar desk at Petworth House, Sussex (James Weedon 2017)
Provenance
Part of the Windham Collection. The hall and contents were bequeathed to the National Trust in 1969 by Robert Wyndham Ketton-Cremer (1906-1969)
Makers and roles
attributed to Nicolas Sageot (1666-1731), ébéniste
References
Grand, P. - Le Mobilier Boulle et les ateliers de l'époque, L'Estampille L'Objet d'Art, pg.50 Rowell 2012 : Christopher Rowell, Petworth, The People and the Place, Scala, 2012 Jackson-Stops, 1977: Gervase Jackson-Stops. “The furniture at Petworth.” Apollo 105.183 (1977): pp.358-66. Hughes, 2008: Peter Hughes. “French furniture at Petworth: Boulle and the acquisitions from Hamilton Palace in 1882.” Apollo, suppl. Historic Houses and Collections Annual April (2008): pp.58-66. Ronfort 2009: Jean Nérée Ronfort (ed.), André Charles Boulle, 1642-1732 : Un nouveau style pour l’Europe (ex. cat.), Frankfurt 2009, p.170