Bureau plat
François Garnier (d.1760)
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1745
Materials
Amaranth, oak, walnut, ormolu, ebony, leather
Measurements
79 x 180 x 92 cm
Place of origin
Paris
Order this imageCollection
Belton House, Lincolnshire
NT 434876
Summary
An amaranth or 'purpleheart' ormolu mounted bureau plat by François Garnier JME (d.1760) Paris, circa 1745. With a rectangular tooled leather inset top and broad moulded ormolu edge with foliate corner clasps. The slight concave frieze with three drawers bordered with channelled ormolu and with foliate handles, with false drawers to the back. The shaped ends mounted with plumed and bearded masks on bold cabriole legs mounted with horned and bearded satyr masks and inlaid with brass and ebony banding. Raised on ormolu sabot, the central frieze drawer stamped to the underside 'JME - F. GARNIER' twice.
Full description
François Garnier (d.1760) Maître Ebéniste was based in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, Paris during the reign of Louis XV. Garnier trained his son Pierre, who at first executed refined Louis XV furniture and subsequently became one of the most ardent pioneers of the 'Goût Grec' (the term applied to the earliest expression of the neoclassical style in France). Christophe Huchet de Quénetain and Simon Swynfen Jervis have written extensively on Garnier in their journal article for The Furniture History Society (vol.48, 2012 pp.105-139).see also: P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1989, pp. 337-347).(James Weedon August 2018)
Provenance
Made in the workshop of Francoise Garnier (Paris, d.1760) Purchased with a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) from Edward John Peregrine Cust, 7th Baron Brownlow, C. St J. (b.1936) in 1984.
Marks and inscriptions
Under central frieze drawer: JME - F GARNIER (twice)
Makers and roles
François Garnier (d.1760), ébéniste
References
Christophe Huchet de Quénetain and Simon Swynfen Jervis 'Francois Garnier' Furniture History Society (vol.48, 2012 pp.105-139). Kjellberg, Pierre 'Le Mobilier Francais du XVIIIe Siècle'