NEW YORK -- Among connoisseurs of 18th-century European furniture, the gold standard has always been French pieces, especially one-of-a-kind works signed by the top cabinetmakers.
"French furniture remains the best, always," said Brigitte Saby, a Paris decorator.Tony Victoria, a top Manhattan dealer in French furniture, said: "There are a lot of signed pieces; a unique signed piece is a different thing. That's where the value is."
Despite the French Revolution and two world wars, a lot of superlative 18th-century French furniture survives, and references to the best pieces can often be found in 200-year-old inventories of furniture commissioned or acquired by the crown. With proper detective work, experts like Patrick Leperlier of Christie's France can trace a piece from the cabinetmaker's hands to its designated palace to its current owner.
Christie's and Sotheby have been auctioning some prime 18th-century French pieces.
"French furniture makers and dealers put in open orders for Japanese or Chinese lacquer panels; they came on ships as ballast," said Phillips Hathaway, senior vice president for French and Continental furniture at Sotheby's New York.
Among Sotheby's offerings is an unusual flat- and leather-topped Louis XIV writing table, or bureau plat.
Made around 1710, the desk has flared cabriole legs with scrolled acanthus mounts of ormolu, or gilded bronze, attributed to Andre-Charles Boulle (1642-1732).
Boulle is considered the first great French-born cabinetmaker. Before his time, foreigners from the Netherlands or Italy generally held the French court's eye -- and pocketbook. Boulle was a master at creating sumptuous, monumental furniture, and he won several commissions for Louis XIV's palaces, including Versailles.
Boulle was widely copied in the 19th century, but nothing is comparable in value to the real thing. The estimate is $1.5 million to $2 million.
Christie's also recently had two fall sales with important French furniture, one in New York and the other in Monaco. Among the offerings were also two Boulle desks circa 1690 with Boulle brass and red tortoise-shell inlay as well as a rare Boulle brass-inlaid ebony and tortoise-shell "regulateur," a clock considered so accurate that it can be used to set other timepieces.