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| Commode Martin Carlin, c. 1778 Pietre Dure Panels, c. 1670 Purchased for King George IV Crown Copyright The Royal Collection Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II |
Martin Carlin (1730-85) served as the cabinet maker for this gorgeous work of marquetry and pietre dure which was completed between 1778 and 1788. This commode was crafted of oak, ebony, gilt bronze and marble with the lush pietre dure panels set-in at the very last.
The piece was originally made for the wild Parisian opera singer Marie-Josephine Laguerre from whose estate it was purchased in Paris for King George IV in May of 1828 by François Benois, the King’s personal baker, for £375. Laguerre’s famously dissolute life led her to an early grave and left her posh collection of furnishings to be picked over by the curious wealthy.
The sumptuous pietre dure panels were just the sort of thing that King George IV loved most of all. The seven panels are carved in deep relief, creating realistic still-life scenes of fruit. It’s speculated that the pietre dure panels pre-date the creation of the commode. In fact, it’s believed that the panels were originally made in the Royal workshops at the Gobelins for a massive set of cabinets commissioned by French King Louis XIV. Two of the panels are signed by Gian Ambrogio Giachetti, a Florentine lapidary working at the Gobelins between 1670 and 1675. At the start of the Eighteenth Century, those cabinets were destroyed as the palaces were altered. The pietre dure panels, however, were saved as precious curiosities in their own right. Some were sold to collectors. That seems to be what’s happened with these panels who, like many others from the French Royal palaces, ended up being sold over and over until they were introduced into a neoclassical piece of furniture.
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| Crown Copyright The Royal Collection Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II |
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| Crown Copyright The Royal Collection Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II |
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