A Louis XIV Tortoiseshell And Brass Marquetry Bureau Mazarin, Attributed To Nicolas Sageot

Important Mazarin desk in tortoiseshell and brass marquetry
Attributed to Nicolas Sageot (1666-1731)
Louis XIV period, circa 1700
Dimensions: h. 75 cm, w. 97 cm, d. 60 cm

Our richly inlaid desk in the first part of brass on a background of red-tinted tortoiseshell opens with seven drawers and a fall-front.
It rests on eight double bracket legs, joined four by four by two heaving X-braces.
The rich and flowery décor features various characters in the middle of an ornamentation of grotesques, mascarons, fantastic animals, birds, insects, monkeys, squirrels, garlands in a dense network of volutes and leafy arabesques.
The ornamentation draws its inspiration from the drawn and engraved work of Jean Bérain (1640-1711), who specialized in the renewal of grotesque art, by lightening the floral style laden with acanthus specific to the Renaissance, and by anticipating the Rococo.

The desk we are offering is part of a very small group of desks attributed to cabinetmaker Nicolas Sageot. As the use of stamps was still very uncommon during the Regency period, few desks were stamped except for two examples listed in museum collections, one kept in the royal collections of Sweden, the other in the Petit Palais in Paris.

Nicolas Sageot (1666-1731) became a master cabinetmaker in Paris in 1706. He was one of the few to put a stamp on his furniture, well before 1751 when an edict made it obligatory in principle. In 1720 Sageot liquidated his studio and lived in relative affluence before sinking into madness in 1723. His work is part of the marquetry tradition illustrated by André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732) and inspired by arabesque decorations by Jean Bérain (1640-1711).