PIERRE MOULIN

Height x width x depth: 91,5 x 130,5 x 64 cm.

Bombé commode in Louis XV style with a shaped Brèche grise marble top, veneered in bois de violette (Dalbergia cearensis, Ducke, 1925) and bois de rose (Dalbergia spp.) with herringbone marquetry.
It is adorned with important gilt-bronze mounts, finely chased, featuring foliate motifs and female masks on the uprights, and bears on three of the four corners of the top the brand “PM”.
This piece belongs to a group of “commodes en tombeau” of the so-called “à pont” model, some anonymous and others stamped with the names Louis Delaître, Painsun, or branded with the mark “PM.”
Besides our example, a second, almost identical piece is known, also bearing the “PM” brand, which comes from the former collection of the antiques dealer Jules Couderc; and a third example, which, although lacking the brand, can be attributed to the same cabinetmaker.
Apart from the monogram PM, the commode from the Jules Couderc collection also bore a label reading “Bertin, marchand et mercier, à la Toison d’Or, rue du Roule”, dated 1722, which allows the entire group of these pieces to be dated.
It is worth noting that the bronze mounts on all three commodes are inspired by André-Charles Boulle, whether in the Flora masks used as keyhole escutcheons, the lion’s paw feet, or — on the Couderc commode — in the caryatids with female mascarons crowned with palmettes.
Furthermore, all three pieces are veneered in bois de violette laid in a herringbone pattern and are topped with red griotte marble slabs.
The “PM” brand remains for the moment somewhat enigmatic: at least three cabinetmakers whose initials correspond to these letters can be considered.
The first is Pierre Moulin, registered as a cabinetmaker in Paris, living on the Grande-Rue-du-Faubourg-Saint-Antoine in 1710, when, on 6 November, he married Jeanne Mainguet.
He was the son of the late Pierre Moulin, painter and varnisher, and of Geneviève Alexandre, who, in a second marriage, became the wife of François Painsun, also a cabinetmaker, who had placed Pierre Moulin in apprenticeship on 28 July 1700 with Bernard Van Risen Burgh, another great cabinetmaker of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine.
The second possible candidate is Pierre III Migeon (1665 – c. 1717/1719); finally, the third could be his son, Pierre IV Migeon (1696 – 1758), who attained master status around 1721 and later became one of the most important marchands-ébénistes of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine.
However, it should be noted that only the full-name stamps of the two Migeons are known, so the most plausible attribution is likely to Pierre Moulin.

This lot is accompanied by an expertise issued by Ce.S.Ar Centro studi archeometrici.