A Louis XV gilt-bronze mounted Parisian varnish commode, circa 1760, stamped by Charles Bernard Provost and Léonard Boudin

Coutau-Bégarie, Drouot, Paris, 25th February 2022, lot 170

Léonard Boudin, cabinetmaker received master in 1761.

Charles Bernard Provost, cabinetmaker received master in 1737.

Léonard Boudin set up his workshop in the Impasse de la Boule-Blanche, in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, a district favoured by chair and furniture makers of the time, and worked there for nearly forty years. This unusually long period of activity, combined with the extremely limited number of surviving pieces of furniture bearing his stamp, seems to indicate the role of subcontractor that the cabinetmaker played for some of his colleagues in the capital. This fully explains the presence of the two stamps on our commode.

The number of known pieces of furniture by Charles Bernard Provost is relatively small, but we can mention a few varnished items:

A pair of encoignures in European varnish from the Rita Espirito Santo Collection, at Christie's London, 12 July 2021, lot 6.

A pair of encoignures in European varnish sold at Thierry de Maigret, Paris, 7 December 2012, lot 301.

P. Kjellberg notes in his work Le Mobilier français du XVIIIème siècle, Dictionnaire des ébénistes et des menuisiers, Paris, 1989, p. 674, that a commode bears a second stamp of Charles Krier, who is believed to have sold it.

The presence of both stamps on our commode, the scarcity of known furniture by Provost, and the fact that Léonard Boudin was also a dealer, support the hypothesis that Provost must have subcontracted many pieces to his fellow cabinetmakers. Our commode was certainly sold by Boudin, who readily affixed his stamp as well, sometimes even stamping the piece himself. Boudin also employed other cabinetmakers such as Topino, Denizot, and Gilbert.