Lot 235 Dα

This exceptional piece of furniture is inspired by the fine chests of drawers and side tables produced for Madame du Barry and Madame Adélaïde. These were also richly decorated with ormolu appliqués and Sèvres porcelain plaques with similar floral decoration in the door panels and tops. The ebenist Martin Carlin was one of the leading specialists in furniture combined with porcelain plaques, as were Roger Vandercruse Delacroix and Adam Weisweiler. Elaborate pieces inset with porcelain were still produced for Napoleon's residences, for example a magnificent guéridon in Fontainebleau Castle. The work's cobalt blue porcelain shaft is finely decorated with Pompeian ornaments and the round porcelain top is painted with mythological motifs in four medallions. Occasionally, the marble tops of three-legged gueridons were painted to resemble porcelain, but the decoration was carried out in cold enamels and thus had the matte appearance of a fresco. For this technique, Roman-Etruscan ornaments were preferred, for example those used in the work attributed to Adam Weisweiler and Pierre-Philippe Thomire, now housed the Musée Marmottan in Paris. Generally speaking, at that time, small oval porcelain panels painted with bouquets in the style of the Louis XVI period were no longer in demand. The fact that this box is decorated with a combination of Louis XVI and Empire style elements suggests that it may have been produced in the Napoléon III period, after 1850.