Table en Cas
Table en CasTable en CasTable en CasTable en Cas

Table en Cas

Roger Vandercruse dit Lacroix (RVLC)

(maître 1755)

 

Oak corpus, curved on all sides, with an finely veneered shelf storage open to the front, side drawer and an extractable writing tablet. Marquetry with finely engraved and colored bluebottles (cornflowers) "dans des treillages", original gilt fittings


Stamped: «RVLC»

Measurements: 51 cm x 33 cm x 77/80 cm

Provenance: European Private Collection


 

This is a very appealing and quite rare type of furniture, a "Table en Cas", a table for every purpose. Such a piece of furniture decidedly aims at universal usability. Being small, it could easily be carried from one salon to another. The drawers facilitated its use for several purposes, the writing table allowed its use as a writing desk, and the open shelf storage for decorations as desired.

Master Roger Vandercruse (aka Lacroix, 1728-1799) mainly produced smaller pieces of furniture, although some larger ones exist. Here he created an attractive variant of a salon table, combining characteristics of a chest of drawers and a „table de salon“.

The corpus, rounded on all sides, of solid elegance, shows an elaborate marquetry with a diamond pattern (lozenges; "dans des treillages", i.e. in the manner of a trellis) with engraved and partly colored bluebottles in the middle of each lozenge. The corpus has a front opening, the tabletop is equipped, on three sides, with a curved and elevated rim, and the writing table can be pulled out to the front. On the left and right the corpus shows an opening in the form of a paddle with a segmental arch on top (a non-canonical decorative form, sometimes referred to as a "heart"). Lockable drawers complement the design. The feet are in traditional ormolu, an element one finds often in the work of Vandercruse.

He produced furniture in three styles: Louis XV, Transition, and Louis XVI (mostly in the latter). Without doubt, this piece belongs to the "transition" period, as the simplicity of form without any baroque break-outs of rococo luxuriousness already speaks of the taste of the following generation.

We find the frontal opening in several workshops, but it is generally seen as one of Vandercreuse's predilections. He was a member of one of the most important "dynasties" of cabinetmakers. Not all of his works are stamped "RVLC", only those produced between 1769 and 1774, dating those pieces. Most of the stamped works were courtly commissions. Especially typical is the combination of trellis and flowers, which almost is his trademark. This counts as an artistic-aesthetic attempt at combining the art of gardening, the flower garden, with furniture, something which is probably not without symbolism: Just like the trellis allows plants to grow high, the piece of furniture, as a writing and reading desk, facilitates the flight of fancy of the spirit…

 

Literature: Clarisse Roinet: Roger Vandercruse dit La Croix, Paris, Editions de l'Amateur 2000

 


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