STOGKEL

1743-1802; MASTER 1775

tockel was of German origin and settled in Paris before 1769. On gaining his mastership he es­tablished himself in the rue de Charenton where he practised his craft until the Revolution, when he moved to 59 rue des Fosses-du-Temple. His stamp is found on furniture almost always in mahogany and in severe Neo-classical style: for example, the massive commode with doors and fasces at the corners and the secretaire en cabinet in the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, or the bureau plat mounted with lictors’ fasces in the Assemblee Nationale. This last piece confirms the at­tribution to Stockel of a small unstamped ebony bureau plat which was formerly in the Grognot and Joinel Collections and which has the same shape and the same fasces (525]. These fasces, which would seem a hallmark of Stockel’s work, are again found on a large commode which was modified in 1786 and then again in 1787 for Louis XVl’s Council Chamber at Compiegne.

Pierre Verlet has made a study of the complete series of furniture by Stockel which was supplied for the apartments of the King and Queen after 1787. He has discovered that the four commodes stamj>ed by Stockel and Benneman are not the outcome of a col­laboration between the two ebenistes, but were pieces originally by Stockel. bought in 1786 for 6.(XX) livres from the mercier Sauvage. Denizot’s son-in-law. and then altered by Benneman. These pieces were sub­jected to such radical alterations (enlarged, reduced, revencered, mounts removed) that it is no longer possible to visualize Stockel’s original pieces. Never­theless. one can point out their massive form, the pre­sence of heavy flutings at the corners and the fact that two of them were originally mounted with porcelain plaques. Stockel was therefore one of the few ebenistes of this period who used porcelain plaques, and the

only one. together with Dester, who was not one of Daguerre’s regular suppliers (Carlin. Weisweiler. R. V. L. C.. Leleu and Saunicr). Pierre Verlet also reveals that these commodes formerly belonged to the Comte de Provence, as one of them originally carried his cipher. Here is an indication that Stockel carried out commissions for the Comte de Provence through the marchand-mercier Philippe-Ambroise Sauvage. The role of the dealer would explain, moreover, the richness of the gilt-bronze mounts and the presence of porcelain plaques.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Pierre Verlet: Le Mobilier royal frangais, vol. I, pp. 36-43. and vol. її. pp. 100-11

Bernard