An eccentric example of luxury Parisian furniture made during the 1790s. This Louis XVI commode table is adorned with brass filets, inlays, and plaques, as was the fashion for some late Louis XVI pieces. This late and evolved variant of the style is often referred to as “directoire,” for the name of the Directorate which governed France after the Revolution and before the Napoleonic Empire.

The commode table and this particular brass laden variant of the Louis XVI style is relevant to American History because James Monroe purchased several pieces of this unusual style during his time as Ambassador to France. This commode, while linked to Monroe only aesthetically and anecdotally, is ironically a finer and more elaborate example of this unique style than the one now in the James Monroe Museum.

The frame is built of oak, and the surfaces are veneered in “flame” mahogany, highlighted with brass, and topped with a white Carrara marble top which is enclosed by a brass gallery. The Neoclassicism of the Louis XVI style, here, is more capricious and lighthearted than the austere and majestic Empire style which follows.