CLICK HERE TO VIEW A NEW WORLD RECORD PRICE FOR ANOTHER COMMODE BY GUILLAUME GROHÉ:
AN IMPORTANT LACQUER SIDEBOARD "AUX CARIATIDES", Louis XVI style, stamped GROHE A PARIS, Paris, Circa: 1855/65
Sold at Koller Auction in Zurich on June 23, 2010, Sale A153, Lot 1332 for CHF 576 000 ($548,000 U.S. Dollars)

CLICK HERE TO VIEW AN EXTRA LARGE IMAGE OF THIS CABINET

INFORMATION ABOUT THE CABINET-MAKER:

Guillaume Grohé was of German origin and established his first workshop with his brother Jean-Michel in Paris in 1827. In 1829 they opened an enterprize at 107, rue de Grennelle, which specialized in making and selling furniture and objets d'art of extraordinary quality.

The business grew quickly bringing them terrific success and financial rewards. Their work became amongst the best of the best and the most sought after in Paris in the 19th century. The firm exhibited regularly at a series of International exhibitions, which started in 1851. Perhaps their most celebrated commission was to refurnish the Imperial apartments in the Louvre, for Napoleon III and Princess Eugenie.

Queen Victoria and Louis-Philippe also purchased many pieces of furniture from the firm that are currently at Buckingham Palace. A Contemporary commentary bears witness to the popularity the firm enjoyed, "la prépondérance du goût français dans l'ameublement de luxe et les modèles que son beau talent a crées assurent pour longtemps à notre pays cette glorieuse suprematie artistique". Translation: "the preponderance of the French taste in the furnishing of luxury and the models that its beautiful talent create will ensure for a long time our country's glorious artistic supremacy"

This piece is typical of the way Grohé used an eighteenth century vocabulary of form and in particular his predilection for the work of Jean-Henri Riesener, 1734–1806.

This cabinet is the one illustrated at Denise Ledoux Lebard, Le Mobilier Français du XIXe Siècle, p245. We can tell that this is the one illustrated there by the veining on the marble top. A similar pair of cabinets by Grohé were sold at Sotheby's London, lot 213, 4th October 1996.

 

Italian Singer Orietta Berti Visit to Jan's & Co. Fine French Antiques, Inc. - February 2012

 

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