Commode Painted in Vernis Martin

The ensemble of this chest of drawers is decorated with flowers and animals in orientalising taste, painted in blue and white by a Parisian varnisher. He probably sought to imitate oriental lacquers, used in veneering since the early 1730s by Parisian cabinetmakers, but perhaps also the appearance of blue and white Ming Dynasty porcelain from China, still highly appreciated by Europeans in the eighteenth century.

This commode and two corner-cupboards that went with it were to be placed in the blue room of Madame de Mailly, then the mistress of Louis XV, at the château of Choisy.