+ Expand

Dimensions: height 29 3/4 in.; width 20 1/2 in.; depth 14 3/4 in.

(75.6cm; 52cm; 37.5cm.)

+ Expand

Provenance: Maurice Segoura, Paris

+ Expand

Notes: The date of Dubut's maîtrise has not been recorded and he seems to have been an artisan privilégié; he was a marchand-ébéniste with a workshop and emporium in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine"près de la grille des Enfants Trouvés". The majority of his furniture is in the Louis XV and transitional styles. Indeed furniture bearing his stamp reveals a broad range of designs and materials; see for example a Louis XV tulipwood and kingwood marquetry secrétaire à abattant sold from the collection of Lord Hillingdon, Sotheby's, London, June 7, 1979,lot 225, veneered with panels of bois de bout marquetry, similar to another stamped by Dubut, in the Wrightsman Collection, veneered with lacquer panels. Similar panels of bois de bout marquetry are on a Louis XV meuble d'appui stamped Dubut, sold Christie's London, March 23, 1972, lot 87, whereas another similarly designed transitional meuble d'appui is veneered in simple quartered panels of tulipwood (Sotheby's, New York, October 28, 1972, lot 120). One of his most remarkable pieces is an early secrétaire in the Hermitage Museum, inlaid with elaborate floral marquetry in the manner of Bernard II van Risamburgh. The great variety of pieces bearing Dubut's stamp may very well indicate that he was stamping pieces supplied to him by his colleagues.

The still-life marquetry panels on the present table are very much in the manner of Charles Topino (maître 1773), and it is been well recorded that Topino sold marquetry panels to his colleagues and that he supplied furniture to such marchands-ébénistes as Héricourt, Dautriche, Migeon, Denizot, Boudin, and others. The shape is also close to numerous small tables by Topino and the unusual triglyph angle mounts also appear on a secrétaire à abattant by this maker, sold, Christie's, London, June 20, 1985, lot 117. It is possible, therefore, that this table was supplied by Topino to Dubut who stamped it as retailer.