R. Louis Bofferding Decorative and Fine Art Case Pieces Storage Cabinets

This pair of Italian Neo-Classical console tables were carved, painted battleship-grey, gilded, and topped with ...

This Boiceau desk bears his stamp, and was entirely veneered in amboyna, an exotic burlwood named for Ambon, the Indonesian island where it was harvested. The naturally squiggling patterning of the veneer provides an overall surface decoration. The top alone has no fewer than 60 small book-matched squares of it – ten across and six deep – creating a kaleidoscopic effect in subtle monochrome. Applied decoration is minimal. It consists of two inlaid pairs of griffins in boxwood and purplewood facing off across braziers on both the front and the back of the desk, and blind-tooled Greek keys trimming white-leather-topped shelves that slide out to either side. These decorations introduce no color, and, in lying flush with the surface, leave the sleek form undisturbed. Boiceau even eliminated drawer pulls, necessitating a lock and key for each drawer. Born in Lausanne in 1881, Boiceau descended from French Huguenots who had settled in Switzerland. Prominent as bankers, lawyers, businessmen, and diplomats, the Boiceaus were a cosmopolitan family. Ernest studied painting in Munich, and then painting and architecture in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts. In 1900 he embarked on a ten-year European sojourn, painting landscapes and portraits along the way. In 1910 he resettled in Paris, became interested in textiles, and established an embroidery workshop that catered to the stage and haute couture. Among his clients were the Folies Bergères, the Comédie-Française, and the Paris Opéra, and the fashion houses of Worth and Molyneux. He also made embroidered table linens, wall hangings, and upholstery fabrics. In a 1913, at an embroidery exhibition in Paris at the Musée Galliera, he presented a boudoir in collaboration with curtains, upholstery fabrics, and a tapestry, embroidered in modern abstract designs. In 1925 he launched a couture line, and branched out to design finely crafted objects and furniture made in rare woods, like ebony and Tasmanian oak...

This mahogany commode has the fluted rails and canted corners typical of case furniture made along the coasts of the Baltic and North Seas around 1800. More difficult to pinpoint, however, is the exact place of its making, since this geographical region stretches from Germany to Russia, and north from Poland to Scandinavia. That said, a strikingly similar, if slightly plainer commode in a private German collection bears an old paper label that identifies it as having been made in the city of Altona. It also bears the seal of King Christian VII of Denmark who reigned until 1808. At the time, Altona was in the independent Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein, located between Denmark and Prussia. Both nations tried to annex the Duchy, and in 1848 it was ceded to Prussia, which became part of Germany in 1871. A North Sea port, Altona was a member of the Hanseatic League, an association of seaports that was established in the 14th century to foster trade and police the high seas. Around 1800, the aforementioned King Christian of Denmark, who was also the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, allowed Jews to freely settle in Altona to increase the tax base. This allowed them to conduct business in neighboring Hamburg, a larger financial hub that maintained quotas. The prosperous Jewish families of Altona built villas there, and decorated them with furnishings that were made locally and imported. Many of those makers owned copies of furniture-pattern books, which were widely disseminated among these seaports, accounting for the difficulty in determining if a piece was made in Altona, Stockholm, or St. Petersburg. We can’t trace our commode to a Danish king or a known Altona merchant, but we can link it to the New World empire builders...