An Important Late Louis XV Transitional Branded Marble Top Breakfront Commode

SOLD. A branded late Louis XV transitional Kingwood and Tulipwood ormulu mounted breakfront commode. The shaped, eared Bardiglio marble top above three small and two lang drawers sans traverse forming three quarter veneered banded panels above a shaped apron flanked by canted corners, the side-panels similarly quarter veneered and banded, on short capriole legs with knees and gilt bronze scrolled sabots. Bearing the stamp of the son of Jean Baptiste Tuart under the mark JME. L 38 in. D 20.5 in. H 35 in. Asking price $ 11,500.

Note: The stamp belongs to the son of Jean Baptiste Tuart. The JME above his stamp indicates that the piece was approved by the jury of the guild of ebenistes-menuiseurs in Paris. After decrees of 1743 obliging guild members to stamp furniture the stamps begin to appear regularly. Tuart, the father, was an ebeniste. Scholars are still uncertain as to how active the son was, because it appears that he was more active as a marchand mercier (luxury retail merchant). However he only used this stamp, and he clearly worked more in the emerging neoclassical style as demonstrated by this exquisite example.