Escritoire
Maurice-Bernard Evald (c.1735 - c.1775)
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1770 - circa 1775
Materials
Oak, mahogany, pearwood, boxwood, brass and Portoro marble
Measurements
134.5 x 79 x 37.5 cm
Place of origin
Paris
Order this imageCollection
Saltram, Devon
NT 871290
Summary
A marquetry secretaire a abattant, French, circa 1770 - 5, by Maurice-Bernard Evald (c. 1735 - c. 1775). Made of oak, veneered in pearwood, mahogany and other stained woods. The eared canted rectangular black and gold Italian Portoro marble top (the maker's stamp beneath) above friezes with inlay simulating a gallery, and fitted to the front frieze with a drawer. All above the fall-front with ribbon-tied floral trails centered by a wreath of musical trophies, enclosing a leather-lined writing-surface and six short florally-decorated drawers and pigeon-holes, above two doors with ribbon-tied floral trails centered by vases of flowers, enclosing a tulipwood-lined interior with two short drawers and a coffre fort, the sides each with two panels of floral sprays, on block feet. A brass moulding to the upper frieze and base moulding.
Full description
Maurice-Bernard Evald (or Ewald) was born in Germany and settled in the rue du Bac in Paris around 1765. He became extremely popular with the French aristocracy and delivered several pieces to the French royal family. His most famous piece was a large jewel cabinet commissioned from Louis XV for his daughter-in-law, the Crown Princess (or Dauphine) Marie-Antoinette. It was designed by the architect François-Joseph Bélanger (1744 - 1818), but was sadly lost in the French Revolution. On all sides this piece is embellished with marquetry inlays of box and other woods arranged in the form of bouquets and festoons of flowers, and pastoral trophies. The top frieze features an inlaid trompe-l’oeil balustrade, while the corners are canted. The bouquets and festoons follow designs by the important decorative painter Maurice Jacques (c.1712 - 1784), made ‘Peintre et dessinateur’ at the Royal Gobelins Manufactory in Paris in 1756, where he designed the elaborate frameworks of fruits and flowers for several tapestry series, including so-called ‘Tenture de Boucher’ after François Boucher (1703-1770) – a particularly good example of which exists at Osterley (also a National Trust property). Maurice Jacques published some of his design in books of decorative prints in the 1760s (Eriksen 1974). (Megan Wheeler, 2017)
Provenance
Date of introduction to Saltram unknown, but at Saltram by 1951 and accepted by HM Treasury in lieu of full payment of Death Duty from the Executors of Edmund Robert Parker (1877 - 1951), 4th Earl of Morley and transferred to the National Trust in 1957.
Marks and inscriptions
Top, beneath marble: [probably] M.B.EVALD
Makers and roles
Maurice-Bernard Evald (c.1735 - c.1775), cabinetmaker
References
Eriksen and Thornton 1974: Svend Eriksen and Peter Thornton, Early Neo-classicism in France, Faber & Faber 1974