Elegant Gueridon, France, Circa 1880

Elegant Louis XV-style gueridon in green-stained wood marquetry on a lemon-tree background, with fine ornamentation in chiseled and gilded bronze, opening with a drawer on the belt.
The tray top and the undershelf are surrounded by a gilded bronze openwork gallery and decorated with a fine marquetry of carnation semis on a tracery background. It stands on three legs with cambering that inverts at mid-height and ends by hooves.

Related Works :
Louis XV period table stamped R.V.L.C., dating from the 18th century and reproduced in P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe siècle, Dictionnaire des Ébénistes et des Menuisiers, Editions de l’amateur, Paris, 1989, pp. 753.

Biography :
From Flemish origin, cabinet-maker Roger Lacroix (1728-1799), also known as Roger Vandercruse bound with the cabinet-makers Jean-François Oeben and Jean-Henri Riesener, successively husband of his older sister. Maitre in 1755, he took over his father’s factory in rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine and very quickly acquired great renown. From 1769, he was in charge of all court orders, and thus supplied the Countess of Provence and Madame Victoire. Lacroix is distinguished by very homogeneous Louis XV furniture, of high quality and a great talent for marquetry. His first production, during the Louis XV period, evolved with the attributes of the Transition period. At the end of Louis XV’s reign, he was one of the first to make furniture in satinwood inlaid with ebony. He then made Louis XVI models with great precision marked by the arrival of a characteristic motif, the helical rosette. Lacroix specialized in bonheurs-du-jour that he liked to decorate in Chinese style. The cabinetmaker also made many small tables for which he used repeated patterns of interlocking circles or diamonds, grids with fleurons or even vertical yellow and green stripes that imitate the marqueterie de paille. Lacroix put an end to his activity under the Revolution, without a son or wife to take over. His factory is sold after his death.

Bibliography :
Les ébénistes français de Louis XIV à la Révolution, Alexandre Pradère, Société Nouvelle des Éditions du Chêne, Paris, 1989.