"Duc d'Orleans" Kingwood Side Cabinet with Plaques

A very fine bois de roi gilt-bronze mounted side cabinet with Sèvres style porcelain plaques. The cabinet has a shaped white marble top above a gilt-bronze foliate running border; the quarter veneered doors are centred by gilt-bronze foliate frames containing finely painted Sèvres style oval porcelain panels. The chamfered corners are similarly decorated with porcelain plaques. The porcelain panels depict pastoral scenes within bleu celeste borders.

This fashion for porcelain mounted onto exquisite furniture pieces was first introduced by ébénistes working for the principal marchand-merciers around 1760, in the last decade of the rococo style and all along the reign of Louis XVI; this piece though is a wonderful example of the revival for porcelain-mounted furniture that took place in the nineteenth century: eighteenth century plaques were often available to buy and many dealers would alter existing pieces or make new ones specifically to receive the plaques. The best known of these dealers were Edward Holmes Baldock, Nicolas Morel and Tatham in England, and in France, A.L. Bellanger, Vaché and Jules Piret.

Louis XVI Style; kingwood, Sévres porcelain, gilt-bronze, white marble. 100% Mesh.