FRANCE - ÉPOQUE LOUIS XIV Lot n° 22

CONSOLE TABLE Gilded wood, royal red marble H. 83cm, W. 131cm, D. 73cm Missing and splinters, repeated in gilding Rectangular in shape, the table rests on four legs, structured in their lower part in the shape of flared sheaths, carved with acanthus leaves, shells and scraps of fleurons. An X-shaped spacer consisting of four brackets frames a small hexagonal pedestal in the centre. The openwork belt is adorned with a symmetrical and lush decoration of scrolling scrolls and foliage with a mask in the centre. A royal red marble top crowns the whole. As early as the 1680s, the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne multiplied the recordings of richly carved and gilded wooden "table legs", intended to highlight marble "tables" in the ceremonial apartments. In 17th century terminology, the word "table" in fact referred only to the top, which was therefore supported by a "table leg". The table presented here is characteristic of the repertoires of forms and ornaments used in France during the reign of Louis XIV, and draws most of its inspiration from the engraved models of the ornamanist Pierre Lepautre (1648-1716). Rectangular tables with sheathed legs, X-shaped leafy spacers and front cartouches can be found in his collection entitled: Livre de Tables qui sont dans les appartements du Roy sur lesquelles sont posées les bijoux du Cabinet des Médailles published around 1700. Solemnity, rigorous respect for symmetry, predominance of architectural design and sovereignty of the volutes and acanthus, so much wealth and invention that make our middle table a testimony to the know-how of carpenters and woodcarvers at the height of the Sun King's reign. A model similar to our copy, larger in size, can be found in the collections of the Palace of Versailles (fig. 1).