A REGENCE GILTWOOD CONSOLE TABLE

SECOND QUARTER 18TH CENTURY

Details

A REGENCE GILTWOOD CONSOLE TABLE
SECOND QUARTER 18TH CENTURY
The later purple breccia veneered marble top inset with serpentine green marble border, above a foliate frieze centred by a mask of Bacchus, on scrolled legs headed by winged Chimera, joined by a central stretcher, on hoof feet, re-gilt
32 in. (81 cm.) high; 58 in. (147 cm.) wide; 28 ½ in. (72 cm.) deep

Lot Essay

This exuberantly carved console speaks to the whimsy and fantasy embedded in the creative vocabulary of the second quarter of the 18th century and relates to table patterns invented by the carver/sculptor Jean Bernard Tureau, called Toro (d. 1731) and the sculptor and designer Nicolas Pineau (1684-1754).
While the satyr and trellis ground of the console recall the interior ornamention of ancient Rome, the legs headed by dragons of this console relate to designs by both Tureau and Pineau. A console table issued in Tureau's Livres de Tables de Diverses Formes, 1716 and published under the auspices of the court architect Charles-Nicolas-Lepas-Dubuisson shows a console with cabriole legs emerging from a plinth base and headed by dragons, not unlike the present lot.
A design by Nicolas Pineau from his Nouveaux desseins de Pieds de table, de Vases et de Consoles, de sculpture en bois, inv. par le Sr. Pineau, which was published by Mariette in Paris circa 1734 (P. Verlet Les ébénistes du XVIIIe Siècle Français, Paris, 1963, p. 54, fig. 11) and shows a console of more rectangular form, with a cabriole leg similarly headed by dragons with wings extending back and the legs joined by a stretcher. The dragon was a favoured motif of both Tureau and Pineau, appearing repeatedly in their work in numerous variations.
A closely related table almost certainly from the same workshop and with identical dragons, though with straight front corners to the frieze rather than the rounded front of the present table, was formerly in the Brandt Collection, Geneva (sold Ader Picard Tajan, Geneva, 11-13 October, 1976, lot 155). A table of related form, with trellis-ground but with terms to the angles, a pierced frieze and dragons to the stretcher was sold from The Collection of Carroll Petrie & European Decorative Arts from the Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, including the Eugenia Woodward Hitt Collection; sold Christie's, New York, 31 March 2016, lot 1020.