Manner of R.V.L.C.

A Pair of Transitional Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Marquetry Tables À Écrire Circa: French, Circa 1890. sFrench, Circa 1890. 73 x 50 x 34 cm (28 ³/ x 19 ³/ x 13 ³/ inches)

A Pair of Transitional Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Marquetry Tables À Écrire, in the Manner of RVLC.

Each table having an oval top with pierced three–quarter gallery enclosing a floral trellis marquetry panel, above a similarly-inlaid frieze with a fitted writing drawer, with green leather-lined writing surface, with divisions for inkwell and sander to right hand side, raised on cabriole legs headed by fronded acanthus angle-mounts swagged with laurel baguettes and united by a conforming galleried undertier, the legs terminating in scrolled acanthus sabots.

The design for these elegant Tables À Écrire with their distinctive form and floral trellis marquetry, is after a small group of tables by the celebrated Eighteenth Century ébéniste Roger Vandercruse, dit Lacroix (RVLC).

A number of important eighteenth century examples by Lacroix survive, including an oval one at Waddesdon Manor, illustrated in G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor: Furniture, Clocks and Gilt Bronzes, London, 1974, vol. II, cat. no. 98; another oval table formerly in the Henry Walters Collection, illustrated in C. Packer, Paris Furniture by the Master Ébénistes, Newport, 1956, fig. 120; a third oval example is illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Le Meuble Français et Européen du Moyen Age à nos jours, Paris, 1991, p. 281, fig. 317; a fourth was purchased by King George IV in 1829 and is now in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle. Elegant and sophisticated their appeal extended well into the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with fine examples continuing to be made by some of the finest Parisian ébénistes of the period.

French, Circa 1890

Artist description: One of the most important and talented ébénistes of the 18th Century, and instrumental in the evolution of furniture towards neo-classicism, Roger Vandercruse was born in the milieu des artisans parisiens, Faubourg Saint-Antoine in Paris in 1728. The son of an independent ébéniste, he was related through marriage to some of the most successful ébénistes of his day, including Jean-François Oeben, Jean- Henri Riesener, and Simon Oeben. His name became gallicized as Lacroix or Delacroix, and he used the stamp R.V.L.C. (Roger Vandercruse La Croix). Elected maître in 1755, Lacroix took over his father's workshop and was soon supplying furniture to the ébéniste Pierre II Migeon, or directly to Madame du Barry at Louveciennes, the Garde-Meuble and the duc d'Orléans. He also worked for the celebrated marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier (and his successor Dominique Daguerre) and many several small tables and other items of furniture with porcelain mounts originated from his workshop. Much admired in his own time Vandercruse Lacroix also held several important positions in his guild. He retired from business during the French Revolution and died in 1799.