c. 1697-after 1757; MASTER BEFORE 1738
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icolas-Jean Marchand, born c. 1697. became a master before 1738. Settled in the rue Saint – Nicolas in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, he belonged to a family of casters, both his brother Pierre Marchand and the latter’s son being master casters. Nicolas-Jean seems to have specialized in lacquer furniture: in 1755 Joubert. ebeniste du roi. supplied two pairs of commodes in lacquer by N. J. Marchand for Fontainebleau, one being for the bedchamber of Marie Leszczynska. Of the first pair, one piece is now in the Wallace Collection (F. 88). while the other is in a private collection (see catalogue of the exhibition France in the Eighteenth Century, Royal Academy. London. 1968). The second pair was for the bedchamber of Louis XV. and both commodes are now reveneered (one is in the Wallace Collection – F. 70 –
and the other was sold by Christie’s on 1 July 1976). The sumptuous gilt-bronze mounts of these pieces were probably finished under the guidance of Marchand himself.
In 1796 Marchand came into conflict with the bronze-casters’ guild for having employed a bronze maker named Bonniere. By then he was approaching sixty and had to retire from active work soon afterwards.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
F. de Salverte: Les Ebenistes, p. 121
Pierre Verlet: French Royal Furniture. 1963, pp. 107-08
/202/ Commode in Chinese lacquer stamped Marchand, supplied with its pair by Joubert in і 755for the Queen’s Bedchamber at Fontainebleau (delivery no. 2017). A second, identical pair was supplied in the same year for the King’s Bedchamber. (Wallace Collection, London)
Gilles
