CRESSENT, CHARLES (1685–r768), French furniture maker, sculptor and fondeur-ciseleur, was born at Amiens on Dec. 16, 1685, and died in Paris on Jan. 1o, 1768. As the second son of Francois Cressent, sculpteur du roi, and grandson of Charles Cressent, a furniture-maker and sculptor of Amiens, he inherited the tastes and aptitudes which were likely to make a finished designer and craftsman. He was a pupil of Andre Charles Boulle. Cressent's earlier work had affinities with the school of Boulle, while his later pieces were full of originality. He was an artist in the widest sense of the word. He not only designed and made furniture, but created the magnificent gilded enrichments which are so characteristic of his work. Cressent made for the regent one of the finest examples of French furniture of the 18th century—the famous medaillier now in the Bibliotheque Nation ale, Paris. His bronze mounts were executed with a sharpness of finish and a grace and vigour of outline which were hardly excelled by his great contemporary Jacques Caffieri. His female figures placed at the corners of tables are among the most deli cious achievements of the great days of the French metal worker. The Louvre, Paris, and the Wallace collection, London, are espe cially rich in Cressent's work, his commode in the Iatter coI lection, with gilt handles representing Chinese dragons, is perhaps his most elaborate piece.
See F. de Salverte, Les Ebenistes du xviii. Siecle, leurs oeuvres et leurs marques (1927).