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Louis XV/XVI marquetry jewel cabinet by Pierre Roussel. The upright cabinet is veneered in bois satiné framing panels of very fine pictorial marquetry, a specialty of Roussel. The tambour door on the front of the top section, marquetried with a scene of a riverside town, opens to reveal two drawers with panels depicting houses; the other three sides of the top section have similar marquetry panels. The top depicts an extensive town scene with a bridge over a river. The lower section has a front drawer under the pull-out writing stand and a side drawer for writing implements. The piece rests on four tall graceful cabriole legs. [The central panel of the top, formerly spring-loaded and rising to reveal a compartment, was fixed, probably because of warping, and a drawer was inserted in England in the 19th century. Some bronzes possibly added.] Ex Collection: Elisabeth Severance Prentiss                           Cleveland Museum of Art Literature: Catalogue of the Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Collection: Cleveland Museum; 1944. Pages 42 and 47. Les Ébénistes du XVIIIe siècle français: Hachette; 1963. Page 132. Fig. 1 Shelley M. Bennett and Carolyn Sargentson: French Art of the Eighteenth Century at the Huntington; Yale University Press, 2008. Cited on page 70.
Height (ins.): 41.75 (190 cm)      Length/Width (ins.): 18.75 (47.6 cm)      Depth (ins.): 15 (38 cm)
Origin: France     Period: Transitional