Showcase Cabinet Ep Louis XVI Stamped Stöckel, Library

Cabinet showcase can form library, solid mahogany capped with a gray veined white marble and opening with two doors. It has a fine and delicate molding, the angles of the uprights are composed of engaged columns and it rests on four turned mahogany feet adorned with simulated hooves. The showcase features five shelves for six levels. XVIIIth century locks. Remarkable finish and very good original condition. Joseph STÖCKEL: Originally from Germany, mentioned in Paris in 1789, Joseph Stöckel works rue de Charenton until the Revolution, then rue des Fossés-du-Temple. Among his clients are a number of prestigious merchants and I count of Provence, brother of the King and future louis XVIII. He will perform four dressers for the latter, which Guillaume Benneman will transform and copy to make eight new pieces of furniture, now preserved in the castles of Fontainebleau and Compiègne and in the Louvre Museum. The study of Joseph Stöckel's production highlights several characteristics: Louis XVI style, mostly mahogany and mahogany veneer, some rosewood veneer, rare marquetry, its furniture have forms powerful, rather massive and rigorous lines. The large veneer sheets are surrounded by fine bronze frames or fine moldings that emphasize the quality of the wood used and sometimes draw on the front of the furniture, a circle or a wide arc. Three of the dressers transformed by Benneman today preserved in the castle of Fontainebleau present this disposition in an arc of circle which probably appeared on the furniture of origin. Heavy, deep-fluted, rounded, projecting uprights appear on the corners of a Stöckel door dresser at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. A large, flat mahogany desk of the same cabinet-maker, belonging to the National Assembly, rests on lictor beams. This office was executed around 1785 for the Count of Provence. A comparable office was part of the famous Jacques Doucet collection (scattered in Paris from June 5 to 8, 1912, no. 129). All the cabinetmaker's furniture - rectangular or half-moon dressers, secretaries, desks, consoles, etc. - show extreme care and attention to detail and perfection. Heir to the bookcase furniture and even the dresser, the showcase furniture appeared at the time Louis XVI. It will give rise to a wide variety of variations depending on the nature of the objects to be exhibited. It is a small wardrobe, very sober, opening two glass doors revealing the small collectibles exhibited. The refinement and the preciousness of these objects are highlighted by the very discreet ornamentation of the showcase furniture. The more precise the collections presented, the more sober the furniture was. The showcase furniture presented here is perfectly characteristic of its period and its maker. It presents lines and finishes of a power and discretion characteristic of the production of Joseph STÖCKEL and necessary for the presentation of a remarkable collection. He chose mahogany, his favorite wood, for his dark and discreet character lending itself to the development of the pieces, but also for its status as a fashionable material. He also treats it in massive, following lines of a strict neoclassicism, renouncing entirely to the bronzes to prefer a molding work of great finesse, proposing a piece whose refinement is only equaled by sobriety . MUSEUMS AND INSTITUTIONS: Paris, Musée du Louvre - Mahogany and mahogany veneer, amaranth and rosewood, gilded and gilded bronzes, white marble. Executed for the account of Provence by Stöckel and restored by Benneman under the direction of Jean Havre for the room of King Louis XVI at the castle of Compiègne. Paris, National Assembly - Office realized for the Comte de Provence. Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs - Mahogany commode and mahogany veneer speckled, gilded bronze, white marble. Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs - Cabinet secretary in mahogany and mahogany veneer, gilt bronze, white marble.