Research
Of mahogany veneer and sculpted ironwood bas relief. The door with applied decoration of a neoclassical torchère surmounted by an oil lamp of a female figure reading, with a border of ivy leaves. The frieze composed of alternating palmettes and anthemions issuing star motifs below a molded ebonized cornice with lower egg and dart border. The whole raised on a square plinth. Minor veneer repairs. Backboard possibly old replacement or restored.

Provenance:
Collection of Gustave Duval.
Collection of Ferdinand Serres, Château de Grand-Vaux, Savigny sur Seine.
Sold as part of the Collections Empire du Château de Grand-Vaux, June 22-23 1935, Lot 337 (illustrated).

Illustrated:
Marmottan, Paul. Le Style Empire: Architecture et décors d’intérieurs, Volume 3, 1930. Plate 24.

This remarkable cabinet, with its most unusual bold and exquisite carved decoration, formerly belonged to the Château de Grand-Vaux, in the village of Savigny-sur-Orge, about twelve miles outside of Paris. The château changed hands several times from its construction in the seventeenth century, and after World War I was acquired by the industrialist and connoisseur Ferdinand Serres, who essentially transformed its interiors into a museum of Empire furnishings and decorative arts. Most of the house’s original furnishings had been dispersed, and Mr. Serres supplemented these gaps with his purchase of the complete collection of a Monsieur Gustave Duval. The cabinet is pictured in situ in the Grand Salon of Duval’s Parisian residence in Le Style Empire, Volume 3, by Paul Marmottan and Jules-Félix Vacquier (1925).

Research report available on request.