The Wallace Collection

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Filing-cabinet and clock
  • Filing-cabinet and clock
  • Jean-François Leleu (1729 - 1807) , Cabinet Maker
  • Attributed to Jean- Claude Thomas Chambellan Duplessis The Son (1730 - 1783), Designer, clock case
    Jacques-Laurent Cosson (active between: master 1765), Repairer
    E.H. Baldock, altered F71
  • France
  • c. 1766 - 1767
    1775 - 1800 (F71 repaired by Lacques-Laurent Cosson)
    May 1829 - June 1837 (F71 altered by E.H.Baldock)
  • Oak veneered with tulipwood, pine veneered with tulipwood (filing-cabinet doors), gilt bronze, Sèvres porcelain, patinated bronze, pink silk; brass, painted enamel, pierced gilt-brass hands, glass (clock movement), steel keys
  • Object size: 182 x 91.5 x 37.5 cm
  • Inscription: 'F.Drury / Novr 1860 / Nov 12th 1914 / H Hildersley' Scratched
    Stamp: 'J.F.LELEU'
    Stamp: 'J.L.COSSON JME' Partly obliterated
    Label: 'HENRY J. HATFIELD / GENERAL / Fine Art Manufacturer / AND / Renovator of Old Work, / 86, CHARLOTTE STREET, / FITZROY SQUARE, W.'
    Stamp: 'H N'
    Stamp: 'T. PARSONS (above a crown) / PATENTEE / DII348H / J. DUCE / MAKER'
    Inscription: 'T. PARSONS' (above the Royal Arms)' / PATENTEE'
    Inscription: 'JUILIEN / LE ROY' Painted
    Inscription: 'Julien / Le Roy / AParis' Engraved
    Inscription: 'A Bourhez 1836 / London / Tupman (?) / December 11th 1840 / L Brooke / mumpers all' Scratched
    Inscription: 'oiled / May 1933' Scratched
    Inscription: 'Le Sieur 12 / Juillet 1811' Scratched
    Inscription: 'Buzot 8bre 1765 / a Bourhez 1836 / le 17 fevré in London' Scratched
    Inscription: 'Buzot 8 (?) 1765' Scratched
  • F71
  • Back State Room
Commentary
History
Further Reading
  • This filing cabinet was made in c. 1766-67 by Jean-Francois Leleu (1729-1807) but its appearance has been altered in the nineteenth century. Originally it was an open-fronted cabinet, somewhat lower than it is now, supported on a base with eight drawers at each side (and not on the front), on each of which were two Sèvres plaques. It was made to go en suite with a writing table, and it is most likely that the one that originally accompanied it is the Leleu table now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is mounted with Sèvres plaques also dating from 1765-6 and with the same decoration. In 1766 the dealer ('marchand mercier') Simon-Philippe Poirier ordered 70 plaques from the Sèvres manufactory, enough to complete the filing cabinet and the table. He would also have commissioned the gilt-bronze mounts and the clock case, the latter probably from Jean-Claude-Thomas Duplessis fils (c. 1730-83). The movement of the clock is dated 1765 and signed by Julien Le Roy (1686-1759), but it is likely that it was supplied by his son, Pierre Le Roy (1717-85).
    The London dealer Edward Homes Baldock bought the filing cabinet in 1829 and subsequently carried out the various alterations which give it its current appearance. These included raising the filing cabinet by adding the plinths below the gilt-bronze consoles at the sides, adding the present doors on the front with their Sèvres porcelain trays and gilt-bronze ribbon mounts, and transferring the drawers from the sides to the front of the base. Such alterations would have been intended to attract a nineteenth-century buyer, many of whom were passionate about Sèvres porecelain.