AN IMPORTANT MAHOGANY LOUIS XVI SECRETAIRE DE VOYAGE BY PIERRE GARNIER PROBABLY MADE FOR JEAN CHEVALIER DE SELVE

June 15 2009, 11:51am

French. Circa 1775. This rare and highly unusual secretaire de voyage by the celebrated ébéniste Pierre Garnier (1725-1800; received maître in 1742), whose stamp it bears, seems likely to have been made for Jean Chevalier de Selve, Seigner d’Andeville, Captain of Cavalry in the Harcourt Regiment and Knight of the Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis, as it bears a brass inlaid monogram with the intertwined initials: JCS. The secretaire is a highly sophisticated piece of portable furniture, with the interior fitted with a number of drawers set with ivory tablets and the stands folding away beneath the cabinet, where they are secured by a metal fastening. Garnier was one of the very first ébénistes to introduce the motifs and principles of neoclassicism into furniture design, favoring strongly geometric architectural forms which accentuated straight lines and sharp corners.