Cressent, Charles [key], 1685–1768, French cabinetmaker, one of the chief creators of the régence style. Although at first a sculptor and bronze craftsman, he studied under the furniture designer Boulle and became official cabinetmaker to the regent Philippe II, duc d'Orléans. Examples of his furniture display a strong and majestic beauty, with subtly curving supports and swelling surfaces. Against their veneers of mahogany and ebony stand lavish relief adornments in superbly modeled gilt bronze—the scrolls, shells, female busts, and dragons typical of régence decoration. Pieces by Cressent are in the Louvre and in the Wallace Collection, London.
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