A pair of second half 17th century French relief carved pear or cherry wood boxes in the manner of César Bagard of Nancy (French, 1620-1709)
each of rectangular shallow casket form, the panelled lids carved with crowned oval monogrammed cartouches flanked by storks and acanthus scrolls and flower heads, the hipped borders and sides carved with further pairs of storks, acanthus scrolls and flowerheads, all within foliate borders, on bun feet, the interiors later lined in green baize, each 9cm high, 29cm wide, 23cm deep approximately (2)
Footnotes:
Provenance:
Olive, Lady Baillie, Leeds Castle.
Sotheby's, London, 13 December 1976, lot 23.
Acquired by a private UK collector, Sotheby's, London, European Sculpture and Works of Art from the Collection Formed by the British Rail Pension Fund, 3 July 1996, lot 77.

The current lot comprising a pair of boxes or caskets would have been used on a dressing table to hold jewellery and small personal objects and were most likely produced as part of a much more extensive set which probably would have included brushes, candlesticks and a small mirror.

In 1689 French laws made it illegal to manufacture luxury items from precious metals, as silver was needed to pay for Louis XIV's foreign wars. The carvers of Nancy in the independent Duchy of Lorraine (now in eastern France) subsequently made a great success of these carved versions of such pieces, made from fruit woods including pear and very fine-grained cherry wood known as bois de Sainte-Lucie. Both the forms and the decoration were based on contemporary silverware. The trade continued until at least the 1740s.

Although the name of a carver César Bagard has become associated with the finest carved objects produced in the region of Nancy during the late 17th century during the 19th century, his documented know work is large-scale and sculptural. Therefore, it is perhaps more likely that several workshops in the city made such toilet table requisites.