Commode

This commode was made for the bedroom of Madame Victoire, daughter of Louis XV, at the Château de Compiègne, where it was placed under a large pier mirror, opposite the fireplace. Depicting trophies, vases, and urns filled with flowers, the marquetry panels were meant to echo the princess’s bed hangings, curtains, and seating covers made of a taffeta chiné (a warp-printed taffeta) with “new patterns of flowerpots.” The colors of the fabric— green, gray, and yellow—were repeated on the commode, whose marquetry panels were stained with natural dyes that have almost completely disappeared. Archival documents attest that Gilles Joubert, cabinetmaker to the king in 1763, delivered this commode to the court. However, the furnishing of royal residences demanded more furniture than the elderly craftsman could provide, and Joubert often subcontracted work to other cabinetmakers, including Roger Vandercruse Lacroix, whose stamp, R.V.L.C., is found in four different places on this commode. Lacroix’s workshop was responsible for the woodwork while an unknown bronze maker designed, cast, and chased the gilt-bronze mounts.

Source: Vignon, Charlotte. The Frick Collection Decorative Arts Handbook. New York: The Frick Collection/Scala, 2015.

Madame Victoire de France, Compiègne. Louis XVI, Compiègne. Lady Annette Mary de Trafford, Irwell Bank, Eccles, Lancashire. Duveen. Frick, 1915.

Source: Furniture in The Frick Collection: Italian and French Renaissance, French 18th and 19th Centuries (Pt. I). Volume V. New York: The Frick Collection, 1992.