This pair of low cabinets belongs to an exceptionally rare and ambitious moment in the history of French furniture: the brief emergence of painted furniture in Paris around 1770–1775. Conceived for an elite clientele, these works represent the culmination of luxury, inventiveness and technical daring at the end of the Louis XV period and the dawn of Louis XVI taste. Oil-painted furniture on a sycamore maple ground remained a marginal and highly experimental practice, restricted to a handful of commissions and produced in extremely small numbers. Among the few examples known today, this pair stands as one of the most accomplished survivals of this short-lived yet remarkable artistic phenomenon.



Painted furniture

Unlike marquetry, lacquer or Vernis Martin—already well-established decorative techniques—painted furniture required the coordination of skills traditionally reserved for easel painting and cabinetmaking. Floral compositions, executed with botanical precision and painterly subtlety, transformed furniture surfaces into pictorial fields while preserving their functional clarity. Such works were conceived not merely as furnishings but as integrated elements within refined interiors, conceived in dialogue with wall paintings, textiles and architecture. Their rarity is inseparable from their cost and complexity: painted furniture demanded the collaboration of multiple specialists and was reserved for the most discerning patrons.



This pair exemplifies such a collaboration at the highest level. The cabinetmaking is attributed to Ferdinand Bury (1740-1795), a highly inventive cabinetmaker known for his refined structures, technical ingenuity and openness to experimental forms. The painted decoration is attributed to Jean-Louis Prévost (1745-1827), one of the most gifted flower painters of his generation, whose work bridges scientific accuracy and poetic sensibility. Trained at the Sèvres manufactory and praised by contemporary critics, Prévost brought to furniture the same level of refinement found in his still lifes and decorative panels. The coordination of the project was most likely undertaken by the marchand-mercier Jean-Baptiste II Tuart (master in 1752)  a key figure in the promotion of painted furniture during the 1770s. Acting as an artistic mediator, Tuart orchestrated the collaboration between cabinetmaker, painter, bronzier and marble worker, ensuring both aesthetic coherence and technical excellence.

Such partnerships were essential to the creation of painted furniture. Bound by the rigid structures of guild organization, individual artisans could not legally execute all aspects of such complex works. The marchand-mercier thus played a decisive role, initiating the project, assembling the necessary talents and delivering a finished ensemble that transcended traditional categories. Comparable works resulting from the same network—such as painted pieces by Joseph Baumhauer and Prévost or the painted secretary now at Waddesdon Manor—confirm the coherence and ambition of this artistic circle.



Rothschild taste

The later history of this pair further underscores its exceptional status. Formerly part of the Rothschild collections, the cabinets were preserved at Mentmore Towers, one of the most celebrated expressions of 19th-century aristocratic collecting. Mentmore embodied the Rothschild ideal of the interior as a total work of art, where furniture, paintings and objects were assembled with scholarly discernment and theatrical sensibility. Within this context, the presence of painted furniture—among the rarest and most refined expressions of 18th-century French craftsmanship—was entirely consistent with the family’s taste for innovation, rarity and historical significance.

At Mentmore, these cabinets were not isolated curiosities but integral components of an ensemble that included masterpieces by Riesener, Boulle and other leading cabinetmakers of the Ancien Régime. Their retention within the Primrose–Rosebery family until the landmark sale of 1977 testifies to their enduring appeal and to the esteem in which they were held. As such, this pair stands today not only as a testament to a fleeting decorative fashion, but also as an object of refined collecting, embodying both the creative audacity of late 18th-century Paris and the cultivated taste of the great collectors who later recognized its significance.