Meuble d'appui à abattant

Marc du Plantier often combined a historicist aesthetic with a decidedly modern twist. Although he typically looked to ancient Egypt for inspiration, for this design he evoked the Louis XVI secretaire à abattant form and combined it with an exquisite material to create an iconic masterpiece that encapsulates the very essence of the French decorative arts of the 1930s.
The case is decorated with galuchat, first popularized in Europe by one of Louis XV's artisans, Jean-Claude Galluchat, and again in vogue in the 1920s and 30s. The attention to detail is evident in each diamond-shaped panel centered with the characteristic galuchat "pearl." Galuchat was often dyed in a variety of colors as an accent to the piece, and in this display cabinet, the interior of the drop-front and the lifting top panel are tinted blue.
Although its form is certainly based on a secretaire, the piece appears to have been designed as a display cabinet. The drop-front retracts fully into the body of the case, and when opened, reveals an ebene de macassar frame, as if the cabinet were meant to house an objet d'art. The lifting top is perhaps meant to provide additional light. The bottom doors, when fully opened, push back into the case, again providing an unobstructed view of anything placed inside. This extraordinary cabinet, which resurfaced at a Versailles auction house in 1992, is probably a unique piece, commissioned by a Parisian client prior to du Plantier's exodus to Spain during the war.

Galuchat, bronze, oak, ebene de macassar
stamped "M. DU PLANTIER"
59 3/4 x 35 1/8 x 20 5/8 in.
(151.8 x 89.2 x 52.4 cm)

Illustrated:
Lison de Caunes and Jean Perfettini, GALUCHAT, Paris, 1994, p. 143 Pierre Kjellberg, LE MOBILIER DU XXE SIECLE, Paris, 1994, p. 203

Provenance:
Perrin, Royere, Lajeunesse, Versailles Galerie Neo Senso, Paris