Getty Museum

Commode

Date

about 1745–1750

Medium

Fir, oak, and Scots pine veneered with bloodwood and amaranth; drawers of walnut; gilt-bronze mounts; brèche d'Alep top

Culture

French

Department

Decorative Arts

Institution

Getty Museum

Charles Cressent made both the wooden carcass and gilt-bronze mounts for this commode. His practice of casting bronze in his workshop broke strict guild rules; through the eighteenth century, the craft of casting and gilding bronze was restricted to a separate guild. Cressent was fined several times for these infringements; in order to pay the penalties, he was forced to hold sales of his stock. In a catalogue he wrote in 1756 for one such sale, he describes this commode's unique central gilt-bronze mount: "the bronzes [represent] two children who are grating snuff; in the middle is a monkey powdering itself with snuff." By the time it was built, this commode already looked old-fashioned. By the 1740s most commodes were constructed without a central divider that separated the two drawers. Although the curving gilt-bronze branches on the front try to mask this division, Cressent had to split the mount into three pieces--an awkward solution. He seems to have had difficulty selling the commode as it was still in his possession nearly twenty years after its construction.

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