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Jacques Dautriche (active 1743–1778, master in 1765, died 1778)
French
about 1760–1770
Object Place: Europe, Paris, France

Medium/Technique Tulipwood, amaranth, holly, sycamore (?) stained green; gilt bronze mounts, marble
Dimensions 87.7 x 126 cm (34 1/2 x 49 5/8 in.)
Credit Line Gift of Jack Linsky
Accession Number67.1192
CollectionsEurope

The cabinetmaker Jacques Dautriche produced furniture in the Transitional style, during the late Louis XV and early Louis XVI periods, when Rococo forms were slowly becoming more neoclassical. Dautriche is also known for producing furniture with geometric marquetry panels set within gilt-bronze banding or filets, as well as his work for the comte d’Artois, brother to Louis XVI, to help furnish his Parisian residence at the Palais du Temple.

DescriptionPallisandre and fruit woods. Marquetry; ormolu mounts in manner of Thomire. Vertical diaper pattern on 3 sides and horizontal ormulu quilloche in openwork on top drawers; wreath drawer pulls. Ormolu plaque on center depicts sacrifice of cupid and Medusa (possibly after Clodion).
Marks Stamped 'J. Dautriche' and 'JME'
ProvenancePossibly Oscar Bondy (b. 1870 - d. 1944), Vienna [see note]. Sold by Blumka Gallery, New York, to Jack Linsky (b. 1897 - d. 1980), New York; 1967, year-end gift of Jack Linsky to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 10, 1968)

NOTE:
According to notes in the MFA curatorial file. Attempts to identify this commode in inventories of Bondy's collection have not been successful.

With the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in March, 1938, the possessions of Oscar and Elisabeth Bondy were seized and expropriated almost immediately by Nazi forces. Mr. Bondy and his wife left Europe and emigrated to the United States, where he passed away in 1944. In the years following World War II, much of his collection was restituted to his widow and subsequently sold on the New York art market, particularly through Blumka Gallery. For further on Oscar Bondy, see Sophie Lillie, Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens (Vienna, 2003), pp. 216-245.