5. Commode à vantaux

Description

Supported on two three-sided cabriole legs at the front and two five-sided legs at the back, the rectangular commode has a bowed front and serpentine sides. The front is occupied by two doors, the door on the right carrying the lock. The slab of sarrancolin marble is cut to conforming shape and has a molded edge. The forecorners are set with pierced corner mounts, each consisting of two parts. The upper section is composed of a pierced cartouche, the frame of which is stippled and set with C-scrolls. Above is a central rosette, flanked by flame motifs, and below the scrolls are set with guilloche studded with cabochons. These lower scrolls flank a convex, shell-like motif terminating in a leafy pendant. This element is set over the shoulders of the lower section of the mount that is also pierced. Its stippled frame is set with flame and leaf motifs, the latter clasping the winged extensions and forming a terminating pendant.

A plain molding extends down the outer edge of the leg to the foot. The front of each foot mount is shield shaped and framed on either side by C-scrolls. A flat oval cabochon surrounded by shellwork set with small oval cabochons is set on a stippled ground. A leafy bud rises above. The back of the foot mount is composed of an elongated cabochon crowned with similarly elongated gadroons.

The front of the commode is set with a gilt bronze framing mount that follows and hides the edges of the doors. It consists of a simple undulating strip molding ending in foliate scrolls. Branches of berried laurel wind along its length. A second inner gilt bronze frame follows the outline of the inserted panel of Japanese lacquer. It consists of foliate C- and S-scrolls set with short branches of berried laurel and scrolled clasping leaves. The upper and lower C-scrolls are edged with shellwork and lined with small C-scrolls. The apron mount is centered by a trilobed, shell-like form set with alternating large and small cabochons. To either side extend stippled strips that are curved to follow the profile of the apron. They have raised borders and are set with a flamelike motif. Each is clasped below by a sort of leafy branch emerging from a corolla and terminating in a scroll of leaves. From it extend, on either side, plain moldings that follow the serpentine lower profile of the commode and continue down the inner edges of the front legs. The small lock plate escutcheon is formed by C- and S-scrolls edged with shellwork and acanthus. The framing mounts on the sides of the commode are of the same model as that on the front of the piece, with the central sections removed and the simple flat strip mounts joined.

The front is set with a shaped panel of Japanese black lacquer decorated with red, gold, and brown. In the foreground at the base of the panel and extending up its sides is a flat ground with rocky outcroppings. At the left the ground is covered with flowering shrubs and trees and a low thatched hut; a more substantial building with a curved roof appears in the upper background. To the right, above a large flowering plant, a leafless tree rises and supports two pheasants. Three fenced gardens extend into the space above. In the center of the middle ground, waves break on the rocks to either side and against the walls of a cluster of houses in the background. Four cranes fly in the sky above.

Some areas of the lacquer—the rocks, the pheasants, and the tree trunks—are raised. The areas on each side of the front bordered by the inner and outer gilt bronze frames are decorated with European lacquer. On the left, flowering leafy vines with tendrils climb up bamboo poles that form part of a fence. On the right, a flowering plant of a different variety also bearing tendrils rises without support from a ground that is covered with shorter flowering plants of a different species and three melonlike fruits.

The left side of the commode is set with a panel of raised Japanese black lacquer featuring colors of red, gold, and greenish-brown. The cusped frame encloses a handled vase that stands on a short-legged plinth and contains an arrangement of leaves, a stem of daisies, a branch of magnolia, and a branch of an unidentified flowering shrub. The right side of the commode is set with a panel of black raised lacquer of similar shape with decorations of red, gold, greenish-brown, and brown Japanese lacquer and European lacquer applied on top. The frame encloses a handled vase on a footed plinth. The vase contains an unidentified leafy branch of flowers on the left and stems of bamboo on the right. In the center rises a leafless gnarled twig. A red butterfly has settled on the right of the supporting plinth. The remaining surfaces of the commode are painted with European black lacquer. The inner surfaces of the doors are veneered with cherry, with an inner frame of amaranth. The interior is lined with pale blue silk trimmed with silver galon (fig. 5-1).

Front, doors open.

fullscreen Figure 5-1

Marks

The commode is stamped “B.V.R.B.” on the upper surface of both the front legs (fig. 5-2).

The top of the front right leg, stamped “B.V.R.B.”

fullscreen Figure 5-2

Commentary

The commode was made by Bernard II van Risenburgh.¹ While, with the exception of one other, the form of this commode à vantaux appears to be unique in Van Risenburgh’s oeuvre, gilt bronze mounts of the same model appear on a number of other commodes of various forms, all either bearing his stamp or attributed to him.² Only the mounts forming the central cartouche seem to be of a unique model, and they have been specifically designed to follow the curved outline of the panel of Japanese lacquer and to allow for the opening of the doors. The lacquer panel occupying the front of this commode seems to have been cut from the front doors of a Japanese cabinet. Both Chinese and Japanese lacquer cabinets were popular and exported from the East in the late seventeenth century, mainly by the Dutch East India Company but also the French East Indies Company.³

In the first half of the eighteenth century the marchands-merciers of Paris sold these cabinets in their shops. Designed by François Boucher, the 1740 trade card of Edme François Gersaint “À la Pagode” shows such an example.⁴ It was mainly from these cabinets that a supply of fine black lacquer was found to satisfy a new fashion introduced by these influential salesmen. The order for this commode was almost certainly made by the marchand-mercier Thomas Joachim Hébert, for whom Van Risenburgh worked until 1750.⁵ Hébert would have supplied the lacquer, and it would have been at his command that the finished commode be lined with the blue silk trimmed with silver galon that still survives inside the piece. This dismembering of old Japanese cabinets was newly fashionable, and a commode of similar size and model, now preserved in the Louvre,⁶ was delivered on September 26, 1737, for the use of Maria Leszczyńska, queen consort of Louis XV, in her cabinet de retraite at Fontainebleau (fig. 5-3).⁷ The commode is listed in the Journal of the Garde-meuble de la Couronne:

Du 26 septembre 1737.

Livré [sic] par le sieur Hébert.

Pour servir dans le cabinet de retraite de la Reine à Fontainebleau

1115. Une commode de bois de la Chine à placages, vernie façon du Japon, chantournée par devant et sur les côtez à deux tiroirs par devant fermans à clef, à dessus de marbre d’Antin, enrichie de baguettes et ornemens de cuivre doré d’or moulu; longue de 47 pouces par le derrière, sur 22 pouces de profondeur par le milieu et 32 pouces de haut.⁸

Bernard II van Risenburgh (French, after 1696–ca. 1766), Commode, 1737. Oak frame; fruitwood (cherry wood?) veneer; Japanese lacquer; vernis Martin; gilt bronze; Anpewter (or sarrancolin) marble, 85 × 127 × 61 cm (33.5 × 50 × 24 in.). Paris, Musée du Louvre, OA 11193. Photo: © Musée du Louvre, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Studio Sébert / Art Resource, NY

fullscreen Figure 5-3

This is the first mention of a piece of furniture decorated with lacquer in the Journal and also the first appearance there of the marchand Hébert, who went on to supply the Crown with furniture frequently set with panels of Japanese lacquer or painted with European lacquer through the early 1750s.

Because of the similarity of these two pieces it is possible to date the Museum’s example to the same decade as the royal commode. The apron mounts and the feet are of the same model, as is the major part of the outer framing mounts; those of the Museum’s commode are a little more elaborate in some areas. The mounts forming the central cartouche differ, as do the corner mounts. While the mounts of the inner cartouche on the Museum’s commode carefully follow the profile of the Japanese lacquer panel, those on the royal commode do not. They contain a panel of elongated horizontal format, of the sort that might have been found on the front of a trunk with a rounded lid or on top of a rectangular cabinet.⁹ Because these framing mounts are nevertheless formed in a wider cartouche, it could be argued that the Museum’s more carefully designed commode is the prototype. Although the mounts have been determined to be late nineteenth- or early twentieth-century replacements, it is likely that they are copies of the original mounts (See “Technical Description” below).

Two other commodes by Van Risenburgh of this size exist. One was formerly in the Wrightsman collection,¹⁰ and the other was in the collection of the Marquess of Lansdowne.¹¹ They are both similarly mounted but decorated on the front with three panels of lacquer, the vertical seam covered by gilt bronze mounts, thus forming a tripartite front. These divisions, whether to hide the seam or outline cartouches, were novel and developed later in the century into a more extreme form by ébénistes such as Jean-Henri Riesener working in the neoclassical style.

Provenance

–ca. 1951: René Weiller (Paris, France); –1953: Rosenberg & Stiebel, Inc. (New York, NY), sold to J. Paul Getty, 1953; 1953–65: J. Paul Getty, American, 1892–1976, donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1965.

Exhibition History

Tales in Sprinkled Gold: Japanese Lacquer for European Collectors, J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles), March 3–May 24, 2009.

Bibliography

Wescher 1955, 118, 121-22, 128, fig. 11; Watson 1966, vol. 1, 152; Huth 1971, 91, n.p, fig. 238; Wilson 1975, 113, ill.; Alcouffe 1988, 282, 284, fig. 4; Kjellberg 1989, 139; Bremer-David et al. 1993, 25, no. 24; Wolvesperges 2000, 164–65, fig. 77; Wilson and Hess 2001, 14. no. 24; Heginbotham and Schilling 2011, 92–93, 95, figs. 1, 5; Heginbotham 2013, 152, fig. 3; 18th Century: Birth of Design 2014, 136–37, no. 33 (T. Wolvesperges).

• G.W.

Technical Description

The carcass of the commode is made primarily of white oak. The four corner posts run from the floor to the top of the case and are shaped from massive blocks measuring approximately 8.5 cm wide x 10 cm deep in section. The two front posts are made of single blocks of wood, while each of the rear posts is made of two pieces: a 6.5-cm-wide post with a 2-cm-thick board laminated to its outside edge. Each of the side panels is made of five horizontal boards, butt-joined, and is attached to the front and rear posts with tongue-and-groove joints.

The case bottom is made as a bipartite frame-and-panel construction. The front, side, and rear rails are all attached to the corner posts with horizontal sliding dovetails whose mortises run through the entire thickness of the posts (fig. 5-4); the medial rail is joined to the frame at the front and back with double-pinned mortise-and-tenon joints. The panels are each made of four butt-joined boards, with the grain oriented front to back; the edges are rabbeted at the top such that the panels are flush with the frame on the inside of the case. The curved lower edge of the case front and sides runs below the rails of the case bottom; numerous short blocks of oak have simply been glued to the bottom of the rails and carved to shape in order to create this form.

Sliding through-dovetails are used to attach the case bottom rails to the posts. The groove for the side panel attachment is visible on the inner face of the post.

fullscreen Figure 5-4

The case top is also a bipartite frame-and-panel assembly with panels made from four butt-joined boards arranged with the grain running from front to back. The four perimeter rails are attached to the corner posts with single, open-faced dovetails (fig. 5-5); the medial rail is joined at the front and back with double-pinned mortise-and-tenon joints.

Top.

fullscreen Figure 5-5

The case back (fig. 5-6) is made as a quadripartite frame-and-panel construction; the rear rails of the case top and case bottom assemblies act as the upper and lower rails of the back. The three medial stiles are joined to the upper and lower rails with single-pinned mortise and tenons. These tenons are single shouldered; they are the full width of the stiles and are flush with their interior face.

Back.

fullscreen Figure 5-6

The interior middle shelf is made from solid oak boards assembled in “breadboard” fashion. On either end, roughly triangular battens, with the grain running front to back, are set in horizontal dadoes in the front and rear posts. The center portion of the shelf is made of two butt-joined boards, with the grain running side to side, attached to the battens with tongue-and-groove joints. The battens project about 1.5 cm to the inside of the front posts, allowing the center portion of the shelf to be inserted after the case was entirely assembled.

The doors of the commode are also constructed in breadboard fashion. X-radiography reveals that horizontal battens (approximately 5.4 cm wide) are attached at the top and bottom with tongue-and-groove joints to the main panel, which is composed of five butt-joined vertical boards.

The exterior of the commode has been veneered with alder wherever Japanese lacquer is not present; this veneering serves several functions. It covers the joints of the commode, reducing the chance that the lacquer will crack along these glue lines. In addition, the veneer raises the surface of the commode to be flush with the applied Japanese lacquer panels, and, finally, the alder is a smoother and less porous wood than the oak substrate and thus requires less surface preparation before lacquering. On the doors, the grain of the exterior veneer runs at a diagonal, from the outside upper corners toward the lower middle corners. On the case itself, the veneer grain essentially follows that of the underlying oak. For the tight, compound curves of the top outside corners of the front posts (where veneering would be very difficult) large blocks of alder have been inserted into the oak and carved to shape.

The watered blue silk lining of the commode appears to be original. It is a fine, plain weave with approximately 195 threads per inch in the warp and 120 in the weft. This has been meticulously cut and fitted to the interior of the case and is adhered with an unidentified adhesive. A silk tape of the same color has been glued across the front edge of the middle shelf; this tape is also a plain weave but is less fine, with 170 and 65 threads per inch in the warp and weft, respectively. Along the front perimeter edge of the lining there is a narrow patterned galon in yellow and silver (fig. 5-7). The silver threads are made from fine, flat silver wire wrapped around a yellow silk core. The warp and weft of the galon have approximately 120 and 60 threads per inch, respectively.

Detail of the galon, or trim, at the perimeter of the interior’s silk lining.

fullscreen Figure 5-7

The commode features four large panels of Japanese lacquer that have been applied to the front and sides of the case. The panels on the two front doors extend out to a line just outside the raised cartouche but inside the gilded bronze frame. The fact that the seam is not covered by the mounts is unusual. These panels seem to have come from the front doors of a Japanese cabinet; the location of the original lock can be clearly seen in X-radiographs (fig. 5-8). The Japanese panels on the sides of the commode extend out to a seam under the framing mounts. They are of lesser quality and detail than those on the front, leading to speculation that they might have been taken from two different pieces of Japanese furniture; however, cross-section samples from both the front and left side panels, examined microscopically in visible light, ultraviolet light, and with the electron microscope, show that the structure and composition of the foundation layers of the lacquer are strikingly similar (figs. 5-9, 5-10). This suggests that the panels may well originate from the same piece of Japanese export lacquerware, and it is perhaps more likely that these were originally side panels with less elaborate decoration. A Japanese lacquer cabinet in the Präsidentschaftskanzlei in Vienna, also featuring a central lock and floral side panels with handles, likely represents the form of furniture from which the lacquer panels were taken (fig. 5-11). Paired holes, visible in X-radiographs above the midline of both panels, may indicate the position of the handles on the sides of the original Japanese cabinet (fig. 5-12).

Composite X-radiograph of the commode’s front doors. The pattern of damage in the central area is the result of the removal of the lock that adorned the original Japanese cabinet from which the lacquer was taken.

fullscreen Figure 5-8

Composite cross-section photomicrograph under ultraviolet illumination showing the Japanese lacquer from the front panel.

fullscreen Figure 5-9

Composite cross-section photomicrograph of a sample from the left side panel showing a layer structure similar to the front lacquer panel.

fullscreen Figure 5-10

Japanese lacquer cabinet, seventeenth century. Wood, lacquer, gilded bronze, 91 × 69 × 49 cm (35.8 × 27.2 × 19.3 in.). The Imperial Furniture Collection, Vienna, Präsidentschaftskanzlein, MD 035838. © Bundesmobilienverwaltung, Hofmobiliendepot, Möbel Museum Wein / Photo: Silvia Miklin-Kniefacz.

fullscreen Figure 5-11

X-radiograph of the paired holes on the commode’s right side (white areas overlapping the cartouche); these may indicate the position of the handles on the sides of the original Japanese cabinet.

fullscreen Figure 5-12

The Japanese lacquer panels on this commode were thinned by the French craftsmen to approximately 0.75 mm in thickness, a remarkable feat. In this state, the panel could be applied to the commode’s curved carcass very much like a veneer, presumably using familiar techniques. As André Jacob Roubo describes, the surface of both the lacquer and the frames would be heated, coated with hide glue, carefully covered to protect the delicate surfaces, and then clamped in place with cushions, wooden cauls, or glue presses.¹²

Based on cross-section and organic analysis,¹³ it appears that the Japanese lacquer was built up from seven base layers over which complex decorative layers have been applied. The substrate for the panel is a coniferous wood; unfortunately, the remaining material is too thin to permit a precise identification. The ground consists of four layers of predominantly clay-based material bound in thitsi lacquer, drying oil, and starch. The starch may relate to the addition of rice or wheat starch mentioned in the literature as a component in mugi- and nori-type foundations and fillers.¹⁴ Above the ground, a thin layer of carbon black appears, followed by a substantial layer of dark-colored, transparent lacquer consisting of a mixture of urushi and thitsi, with the addition of a significant amount of drying oil. Thitsi lacquer, harvested from trees grown in Southeast Asia, made its way to Japan through the trade of the Dutch East India Company as well as Chinese merchants. This less expensive lacquer is frequently found as an admixture with urushi, particularly in lower lacquer layers of export lacquerware.¹⁵ A variety of decorative techniques have been used above the base layer of transparent lacquer, including hiramakie (flat designs of sprinkled metal powder), takamakie (similar designs in relief), kirigane (individually laid pieces of cut metal foil), and nashiji (evenly sprinkled metal flakes used as a background texture).¹⁶ In the case of decoration observed in the cross section, the metal powder or flakes were then covered with a layer of transparent urushi mixed with drying oil. The metal flakes are predominantly gold and silver, but there are significant European additions in brass and tin powders.¹⁷ The raised cartouche that surrounds the central panel is itself a European addition with the low relief likely created in lead white over a Japanese design visible in the X-radiograph (fig. 5-13).

Image and corresponding X-radiograph of the border on the front, the latter showing the radio-opaque raised cartouche extending over a now-concealed Japanese decoration with a sprinkled dot pattern.

fullscreen Figure 5-13

The original French imitation lacquer surrounding the Japanese lacquer panels still survives in most areas of the front doors. It was applied in three primary layers (fig. 5-14). The first layer, applied directly to the veneered wood substrate, is a yellow clay-based ground, similar to gilder’s bole, bound in a simple varnish composed of pine resin and a drying oil, likely linseed oil. The use of this ground layer indicates a distinct choice by the European laquerer and differs from other approaches to preparing grounds for European lacquer, which usually relied on colored varnish applied directly to the wood or a traditional chalk and animal glue (gesso) ground. The yellow ground layer used here is uncommon among the objects examined in the Getty Rococo collection and only appears in one other object, the Van Risenburgh cartonnier (see cat. no. 3). In this case, the French craftsmen appear to have made a concerted attempt to imitate the entire layer structure that they would have observed through close examination of the Japanese export lacquer panels with which they were working. Without knowledge of or access to the original Japanese materials, the European craftsmen used the materials at hand, gilder’s bole and oil-resin varnish, to create a warm yellow-beige foundation similar to the Japanese ground.

Cross-section photomicrograph of the European lacquer in visible light (top) and ultraviolet illumination (bottom) showing the layer structure of the original ground, original pigmented and transparent varnishes, and later restorations.

fullscreen Figure 5-14

On top of this preparatory layer, a black ground layer was applied using bone or ivory black suspended in a varnish containing pine resin, drying oil, and soft copal that shows signs of being heated during preparation. A similar varnish recipe is described in an eighteenth-century treatise by Jean-Félix Watin as vernis blanc au copal, used by the famous Martin brothers.¹⁸ The Watin recipe however, specifies the use of Venice turpentine, synonymous with larch turpentine from Larix decidua in the late eighteenth century, which was not detected in these samples.¹⁹ Instead, it appears that pine resin, a less expensive soft resin from trees in the Pinaceae family, was used in its place. After the application of the pigmented layer, the surface was sealed with a coating of clear varnish of composition similar to that used in the pigmented layer below. The decoration of the French lacquer relies primarily on brass and pewter metallic powders and vermilion pigment. From the ground layers through the surface decoration, this European coating shows a clear imitation of the Japanese layer structure, albeit with the use of entirely Western materials. While the original decorative French lacquer survives in good condition on the doors, the plain black legs and rails of the case appear to have been stripped and relacquered using a chalk (or possibly gypsum) ground with black lacquer above.

The Japanese lacquer panels are in good condition overall. There have been several campaigns of restoration to replace losses along vertical cracks, and in some areas, particularly on the sides, the designs have been reinforced with brass, pewter, and gold paints. Several layers of darkened restoration varnish, covering both the Asian and European lacquer, diminish the brilliance of the original work.

Seventeen representative gilded bronze mounts were removed from the commode and analyzed for bulk alloy composition by X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF). The XRF results suggest very strongly that all of the mounts date to the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. All of the mounts have higher than normal levels of zinc, along with very low levels of tin, silver, antimony, and iron. This combination of characteristics makes an eighteenth-century date extremely unlikely. The compositional results from these mounts were evaluated in comparison to a reference database using machine learning algorithms to generate an estimate of their date of manufacture.²⁰ This process yielded an estimated date of 1905 ± 37 years with 90% confidence.

Several other lines of evidence support the conclusion that the mounts on this commode have been replaced. The mounts were compared visually to other Van Risenburgh mounts in the Getty collection, including the corner cupboards (cat. no. 4), the cartonnier (cat. no. 3), the long cabinet (cat. no. 1), and the red lacquer commode (cat. no. 6). When compared directly to these mounts, this commode’s mounts are significantly less finely chased. This comparison is particularly evident in comparison to the nearly identical mounts from the red lacquer commode.²¹ In addition, there are numerous areas where what appear to be file marks from fitting the mounts as well as soldering joints between sections have actually been cast in, suggesting that the current mounts are copies of mounts that had been previously fitted to furniture. Finally, when the mounts are removed, X-radiographs reveal numerous filled holes beneath the mounts that do not correspond with the current screw holes. The fact that virtually all of the extraneous holes lie beneath the current mounts suggests that they may be faithful copies of the originals.

The marble of the top is commonly called sarrancolin and appears to be most similar to the variety called Beyrede or Antin Sarrancolin by Dubarry de Lassale. ²² It is a highly brecciated metamorphic limestone with predominantly gray fragments in a dark red to pinkish matrix. Veins of white, cream, and yellow cross through the matrix. Within the gray limestone fragments are numerous fossil traces of rudist bivalves (fig. 5-15). The top is between 3.2 cm and 3.5 cm thick and has a molded edge consisting of a small cavetto at the top, separated by a narrow fillet from a larger ovolo at the bottom (fig. 5-16). The top has been broken along several lines and has been repaired with iron cramps and cement.

Detail of marble tabletop with rudist bivalve fossil traces.

fullscreen Figure 5-15

Profile of the commode’s marble top.

fullscreen Figure 5-16

• A.H.,
• J.C.,
• M.S.,
• and R.S.