A rare Louis XVI ormolu-mounted ebony and japanese black and gilt lacquer secrétaire à abattant. Circa 1780, stamped twice M Carlin JME. Photo Sotheby's

the brocatelle marble top upon a conforming frieze containing a central drawer and mounted with ormolu guilloche enclosing rosettes, the rectangular drop front inset with two seventeenth-century Japanese lacquer panels depicting landscapes and outlined with ormolu frames opening to a fitted interior decorated with trompe l'oeil marquetry, above an inset seventeenth-century Japanese lacquer cabinet fitted with two long and six short drawers framed by ormolu bands molded and chased to match those of the drop front, the chamfered angles mounted with large ormolu rosettes and ribbon-tied hanging olive branches, each side inset with ormolu-framed seventeenth-century Japanese lacquer panels, the base mounted with ormolu rosettes at the chamfered feet and scrolling acanthus flanking a pine cone.  
Martin Carlin (c. 1730-1785), maître in 1766 
height 4 ft. 2 1/2 in.; width 36 in.; depth 16 3/4 in. 128.5 cm; 91.5 cm; 43 cm. Estimate 300,000-500,000 USD - Lot Sold: 494,500 USD

PROVENANCE: Giraud, Paris

André Seligmann, Paris, acquired from the above 1905

Confiscated from the above November 1940 (inventory Sel 208) and transferred to the German Embassy, Paris (inventory III, 82) and thereafter restituted March 27, 1946

and thence by descent until sold

Christie's New York, The Property of a European Collector, May 9, 1985, lot 193

LITERATURE: Pierre Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe siècle, 2002, p. 176, fig. C

NOTE: Martin Carlin (1730-85), maître in 1766, worked exclusively for the Parisian marchand-merciers. He is best known for his furniture decorated with Sèvres porcelain of which he produced around 70 pieces between 1766 and 1778 and those fitted with Japanese lacquer panels. The main part of his output consisted of smaller pieces particularly tables of myriad forms conceived for the luxury market.

An almost identical secrétaire from the collection of the duc de Doudeauville was sold M. Charpentier de Rîbes, Palais Galliera, Paris, December 8, 1964, lot A. A related lacquer bureau plat with cartonnier by Carlin, probably made for comte Nicolas-François Mollien, sold Christie's London, December 9 , 1982, lot 75, is illustrated Alexandre Pradère, French Furniture Makers, 1989, p. 345, fig. 404. Another bureau plat with cartonnier of this design but with octagonal , 1989, p. 345, fig. 404. Another bureau plat with cartonnier of this design but with octagonal legs is recorded belonging to Madame Adélaïde in her cabinet at Bellevue.

Sotheby's. Property from the Collections of Lily & Edmond J. Safra -Volumes I-VI. New York, 18 Oct 2011 www.sothebys.com