Regency commode by François LIEUTAUD

Restoration of a Louis XIV period Commode in alternating rosewood and walnut marquetry with friezes and fillets, the slightly curved front opening with three wide drawers in three rows, the top, encircled by a brass ingot, with geometric decoration of circles framing a central polylobed decoration with figurative motifs, the intermediate uprights and crossbars darkened with polished brass fluting, the sides in walnut veneer with diamond frieze motifs, the profiled feet with claw feet.

The furniture is adorned with high-quality chiseled and gilded bronze ornamentation: keyhole escutcheons with ribboned Apollo masks (symbol of the Sun King, model by François Lieutaud and Nicolas Sageot), pull handles with openwork palmette plaques, mascarons of bearded old men (or atlantes), sabots with palmettes and acanthus scrolls, a shell-shaped lamp base flanked by acanthus leaves curled at the apron. 

François LIEUTAUD (1665 – 1748)

A cabinetmaker originally from Marseille, he received his master's certificate in Paris at the end of the 17th century and was active during the reign of Louis XIV and the Regency. He worked within the privileged confines of the Saint-Jean-de-Latran cloister, and Louis XIV granted him the rare privilege of creating and crafting the bronze mounts for his furniture. He collaborated with Noël Gérard (who was also a mercer), as well as with Charles Cressent and even André-Charles Boulle (who appointed him as his personal expert during a trial in 1719). He founded a dynasty of cabinetmakers, as his son Charles and his grandson Balthazar (famous for his regulator clocks) practiced the same craft. Long unknown to art historians due to his stamp bearing only the initials "FL," he is nevertheless considered one of the greatest cabinetmakers of his time.

Bibliography

• French Cabinetmakers from Louis XIV to the Revolution – Editions du Chêne – 1989 – Alexandre Pradere