Impressive and astonishing port chest of drawers - Landerneau 18th century

Mazarine chest of drawers in Lebanese cedar, Santo Domingo mahogany, Coromandel caliatour and Guyana heartwood.

(Impressive and astonishing, yes, there's no denying it, even if it's also a bit to paraphrase some of our colleagues who are very fond of them).

The popularity of exotic woods has always been attributable to their variety and intensity of color. This exceptional harbor chest of drawers, combining woods from the Orient and the West Indies, is luminous in both luster and color.
This is the oldest Landerneau commode, the Louis XIV-style Mazarine commode, flat on the front and sides, flanked by four inverted bracket feet set at 45° and punctuated by goat hooves.
The Landerneau commode is often confused with the Malouine commode. However, this model with bracket feet is very specific to the inner harbor of Brest, and even rarer than the curved crossbow Malouine with shank feet. Of course, there are a few features common to both the Leonardo and the Malouin models, particularly with the Louis XIV type: the flush top drawers and smooth sides, and the fact that many of them were originally adorned with Malouin plate drawer handles, which adds to the confusion.
Our chest of drawers opens with three wide drawers in three rows (the top row sliding directly under the top) in ribbon-cut Lebanese cedar, interspersed with fine mahogany beaded rails, the bottom row also straight and without apron. The four mahogany uprights, with their delicately carved mazarin foot, punctuated by a ribbed hoof, give it supreme refinement and distinguish it as one of the pieces of furniture used by the wealthy merchants of Landerneau. The sides, made of two planks of cedar, are smooth and "mirrored", left straight at the base, again in the spirit of the Grand Siècle.
The drawers are adorned with chased bronze pull handles and lock escutcheons ordered from the capital. These handles adorn some of the finest Parisian Louis XIV commodes (some of which can be seen on the Anticstore website adorned with similar handles, and which a colleague tells us are "rich and unusual"). They have of course been disassembled in the workshop, and we have been able to ascertain with certainty (even if there are other nail holes - in the same alignment - as they have been moved slightly several times - up to five times for some of them, according to our carpenter - for maintenance reasons, which tends to confirm the furniture's age) that they constitute the dresser's original upholstery.
While the tops of Landerne chests of drawers are generally made of a single plank, this one (and it's easy to see why), molded around the perimeter to match the shape of the chest, has a mitered frame. The surround (or frame) is cedar, while the center of the top is made of three wide caliatour planks encircled by a band of heartwood. It should also be noted that the top is not pegged, but (a sign of careful assembly) mortise and tenon jointed.
The drawer boxes and intermediate or false bottoms are in fir planks, the back is in cedar.


The wood, top, front and sides are in very good original condition. The cabinet has been entirely reworked by our joiner (backs, drawer runners, etc.) and finished with a superb wax-filled finish.

A large model of very fine quality, with a sober and refined purity, richly carved and made from noble and precious woods.
Landerneau - First half of the 18th century.