There are pieces that stop you in your tracks — and this was one of them. Sourced from a Houston estate collection, this French Louis XVI commode in richly figured thuja burl veneer arrives with hand-cut crossbanded walnut borders and fine ebony checkerboard string inlay along the top rail. Three generous drawers, each with original iron escutcheons and a working skeleton key. The reeded pilaster columns taper to elegant spade feet — a detail that places this firmly in the Louis XVI vocabulary, that late 18th century French ideal of restrained elegance before the Empire period arrived with all its drama.
The original Saint-Anne marble top — dark grey-black with white veining — sits exactly as it was made to, heavy and cool and permanent.
Open a drawer and you'll see what separates a genuine period piece from a reproduction: hand-planed interior surfaces, each one showing the slight rhythmic ridging left by a craftsman's plane. Irregular hand-cut dovetails at the corners. Secondary poplar on the case sides, darkened with age at the edges exactly as it should be. The burl veneer has developed fine age-checking — those tiny hairline cracks that only come from wood genuinely moving through seasons over 150 years.
This is not a piece that announces itself. It earns your attention slowly, detail by detail.
Works beautifully as a statement dining room sideboard, an entry hall console, or a bedroom dresser with serious presence.
Dimensions: 33"H × 51"W × 25.75"D
Condition: Very good. Age-appropriate wear consistent with a genuine period piece — minor veneer lifting at one lower corner. Marble solid with no cracks. Hardware original and intact.
Local Dallas pickup available. DFW delivery can be arranged. Contact us for shipping quotes on longer distances.
