Mazarin Desk With Black Background And Gold Decoration - Louis XIV Period - Circa 1680

Desk called "Mazarin" with black background decoration and gold decoration in imitation of Chinese and Japanese lacquers.

The rectangular top with lake landscape motifs enlivened by foliage, birds and insects.
The front opens with seven drawers framing a central door revealing a niche,
The boxes are flanked by scalloped crosiers,
The base is with eight balusters joined by an X-shaped spacer,
Small spinning top feet.
H: 80 - W: 121 - D: 63 cm.
Louis XIV period circa 1680 – 1690

"This desk belongs to a group of furniture that D. Alcouffe highlighted in his work devoted to the artisans working in the Faubourg St Antoine in the last quarter of the 17th century. This eight-legged desk would be one of the very first Parisian varnished furniture.
Although the existence of varnishers imitating oriental lacquers (China and Japan) in Europe was known from the beginning of the 17th century in England and the Netherlands, the practice of this innovative technique did not develop in France until the reign of Louis XIV. It was not until around 1670 that varnishers seeking to imitate the lacquers of the Rising Sun appeared in Paris in the Faubourg St-Antoine. Several of them have been identified by D. Alcouffe such as Jacques Thérèse who supplied Molière, Paul Thévenard and Guillaume Martin, whose surname, through his descendants, would become a reference in varnish in the 18th century.

This is a rare and precious piece of furniture from this early production whose inspiration came from China and Japan without
it being possible to determine its origin precisely due to the interpretation that Parisian varnishers could make of it.
Stylistically datable to the years 1680 – 1690, this desk could have been marketed by prestigious brands such as Le Roy et la Chine by Germain Massot or Au Cabinet de la Chine by Paul Thevenard in the inventory drawn up in 1687 of the furniture of the cabinetmaker François Yesmelin, established on Grande rue du Faubourg St Antoine, we note a desk “style of China”
Sothesby's BBS A tribute, Paris, June 30, 2016 »

Bibliography:
- T. Wolvesperges, French lacquer furniture in the 18th century
- D. Alcouffe, the craftsmen decorators of wood in the Faubourg St Antoine under the regime of Louis XIV – Dijon 2008
- A.Forray-Carlier and M.Kopplin, The secrets of French lacquer. Le vernis Martin Paris 2014, No. 17 p.43