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Commode (Center mount)

Charles Cressent

The J. Paul Getty Museum

The J. Paul Getty Museum
Los Angeles, United States

Charles Cressent made both the wooden carcass and gilt-bronze mounts for this commode. His practice of casting bronze in his workshop broke strict guild rules; through the eighteenth century, the craft of casting and gilding bronze was restricted to a separate guild. Cressent was fined several times for these infringements; in order to pay the penalties, he was forced to hold sales of his stock. In a catalogue he wrote in 1756 for one such sale, he describes this commode's unique central gilt-bronze mount: "the bronzes [represent] two children who are grating snuff; in the middle is a monkey powdering itself with snuff."

By the time it was built, this commode already looked old-fashioned. By the 1740s most commodes were constructed without a central divider that separated the two drawers. Although the curving gilt-bronze branches on the front try to mask this division, Cressent had to split the mount into three pieces--an awkward solution. He seems to have had difficulty selling the commode as it was still in his possession nearly twenty years after its construction.

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  • Title: Commode (Center mount)
  • Creator: Charles Cressent
  • Date Created: about 1745–1750
  • Location Created: Paris, France
  • Physical Dimensions: 90.2 × 136.5 × 64.8 cm (35 1/2 × 53 3/4 × 25 1/2 in.)
  • Type: Furniture
  • External Link: Find out more about this object on the Museum website.
  • Medium: Fir, oak, and Scots pine veneered with bloodwood and amaranth; drawers of walnut; gilt-bronze mounts; brèche d'Alep top
  • Terms of Use: Open Content
  • Number: 70.DA.82
  • Culture: French
  • Credit Line: The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
  • Creator Display Name: Charles Cressent (French, 1685 - 1768, master 1719)
  • Classification: Decorative Art (Art Genre)
The J. Paul Getty Museum

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