HENRY DASSON (born 1825) - Receive artist alerts » - More items from this artist »

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gilt-bronze, wood, marble, lacquer

The Commode à Encoignures stamped to the back of the carcass 'HENRY DASSON 1888'. The Console De Dessertes stamped 'HENRY DASSON 1890' to the carcass and signed 'henry Dasson et Cie 1890' to the gilt bronze border.

Camille Mestdagh, Pierre Lécoules (2010) :'L'Ameublement d'art français : 1850-1900', Editions de l'Amateur.
Ledoux-Lebard, Denise (1984), 'Les Ebenistes du XIXeme siècle'; pp. 146 - 151.
Meyer, Jonathan (2006), 'Great Exhibitions - London, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, 1851-1900', Antique Collectors' Club, Woodbridge; p. 269, pls. H7, H8, H10: p. 270, pl, H12.
Alcouffe, Daniel (1993, 'Furniture Collections in The Louvre', Vol.I; p. 239.

An Important Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Lacquer and Ebony Veneered Commode à Encoignures Together with a Pair of Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Ebony Veneered Console De Dessertes En Suite After the Models by Martin Carlin, By Henry Dasson.

The exceptional commode has a breakfront Brocatelle violette d’Espagne marble top above a frieze with finely cast gilt-bronze drapery festoons. Below are two cupboard doors with aventurine borders and gilt-bronze frames, inset with fine Japanese hiramaki-e and takamaki-e lacquer panels, depicting courtly figures in a stylised landscape. The cupboard doors are flanked to each side by a pair of open encoignure ends, with gilt-bronze framed aventurine panels, and marble shelves with finely cast lambrequin mounts. The commode is raised on hexagonal tapering fluted legs with gilt bronze caps.

The consoles also have shaped Brocatelle violette d’Espagne marble tops, inset within gilt-bronze borders, above a frieze applied with finely cast gilt-bronze drapery swags. Each console has rounded sides and two marble lined open shelves with gilt-bronze galleries and mirrored backs, above fluted octagonal tapering legs with gilt-bronze caps.

The design for this important suite, was inspired by the famous commode à l’anglaise, supplied by the eighteenth century ébéniste Martin Carlin (maître 1766; d. 1785), together with a pair of matching lacquer consoles, for the Rue du Faubourg Saint Honore home of the Marquise de Brunoy between 1775 and 1780. Seized at the time of the Revolution, the commode was separated from the consoles in 1802, when it was moved to the Grand Salon of the Premier Consul’s apartment at the Palais de St. Cloud. It remained at St. Cloud until 1870, when it was transferred from the Mobilier national to the Louvre, (Inv.OA5472). The pair of consoles remain today in the Petit Trianon.

Although closely related to Carlin’s models, Dasson makes a number of structural and aesthetic adaption’s to the original design, arguably creating a form more balanced in its proportions.

The carcass of Carlin’s commode shows that it was enlarged and adapted at its time of construction, with modifications to the back and underside. It also has two doors, but features a large central lacquer panel flanked by two smaller panels, one door being double, incorporating the central panel and one of the smaller ones.

Dasson faithfully recreates Carlin’s drapery festoons, in the mounts to the frieze of the commode, but subtly alters the mounts to the shelves and to the apron. Gone are the openwork galleries to the corner shelves, and the drapery to the edge of the shelves is expanded to a distinctly nineteenth century styled lambrequin decoration. The fielded, horizontal line mounts, to the apron of Carlin’s commode, are also discarded in favour of an intricate continuous running pattern border.

Therefore although directly inspired by Carlin’s models, Dasson has created a suite of furniture of subtle adaptation, firmly rooted in the perspective of the nineteenth century.

Born in 1825, Henry Dasson was one of the finest makers of gilt-bronze mounted furniture in the nineteenth century. With a workshop established at 106 rue Vieille-du-Temple, Paris, he specialised predominantly in the production of Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI style furniture using the very finest gilt-bronze mounts with the highest quality mercury gilding. In 1871, he purchased the flourishing business and remaining stock of Charles-Guillaume Winckelsen, who had established a reputation for furniture of the highest quality. Dasson almost certainly inherited the craft of ciseleur from Winckelsen.

Dasson exhibited a number of pieces at the 1878 and 1889 Paris Exhibition of Louis XV and XVI styles as well as pieces of his own modified eighteenth century design. The exhibits in 1878 included a table entirely in gilt-bronze, purchased by Lord Dudley. His copy of the celebrated Bureau du Roi, sold at the same exhibition to Lady Ashbuton, was cited as n'egale-t-elle pas l'original pour la delicatesse et le fini du travail.

Commode à Encoignure
Height: 98 cm / 39 inches
Width: 164 cm / 65 inches
Depth: 47 cm / 19 inches

Console De Dsesertes
Height: 87 cm / 34 inches
Width: 83 cm / 33 inches
Depth: 37 cm / 15 inches