Offered by Franck Baptiste Paris
Extremely rare small table opening with a side drawer.
Rectangular in shape and resting on four legs with columns connected by an x-brace, it is decorated on all sides with ebony veneer inlaid with boxwood fillets.
The cross pieces, the spacer and the edges of the top are decorated with acanthus braces, while the plateau’s central reserve is richly decorated with a central rosette framed with foliage.
The whole decoration is inspired by Jean Marot’s engravings (1619-1679).
The hexagonal and faceted columns, alternating boxwood and ebony fillets, rest on spinning top feet.
Frame in resinous wood.
Good condition, small restorations of use to the marquetry.
Louis XIV period work, attributable to Pierre Gole*, Paris circa 1660.
Dimensions:
Height: 68 cm; width: 64.5cm; depth: 43 cm.
Bibliography :
- Pierre Gole, Louis XIV’s cabinetmaker, Faton editions, Lunsingh Scheurleer.
Our opinion:
Because of their very airy construction and their frame in resinous wood, few living room tables of the Louis XIV period have come down to us. The model we present is attributable to the cabinetmaker of King Louis XIV, Pierre Gole. Although he is known for the masterpieces delivered to the court of the Sun King, his after-death inventory indicates that the twelve establishments of his workshop massively produced this type of small living room tables on columns. It is amusing to note that they were always accompanied by two pedestal tables, which seemed to be small saddles with cylindrical shafts that were placed on each side of the table to support torches or candles. The characteristic and futuristic shape of our table with its very pronounced X brace, its hexagonal columns with two-colored facets and a very contrasting decoration of acanthus scrolls allow us to attribute it to Pierre Gole. Throughout his life, he used this type of "framed rosette" motifs inspired by the engravings of Jean Marot, who was his brother-in-law by marriage.
This two-tone decoration can be found on the back of the niches of the large ebony cabinets made by Pierre Gole, such as the one in the Serrant castle.
* Pierre Gole (or Golle) learned his trade from his father-in-law, the Dutch cabinetmaker Adriaan Garbrand. Gole was employed by Cardinal Mazarin before obtaining royal protection. From 1656, Pierre Gole is described in documents as "master cabinetmaker in ebony of the king". From 1662, he supplied King Louis XIV, and the Grand Dauphin, with marquetry cabinets and many other pieces of furniture for the Palace of Versailles and other royal castles.
In 1681, he practiced his talent in a workshop at the Manufacture des Gobelins, where he charged 6,000 livres for some of his exceptional cabinets. For the marquetry floor of the Grand Dauphin’s cabinet, he was paid 7 500 livres.
Theodor Herman Lunsingh Scheurleer identified Pierre Gole as the cabinetmaker who created a table and two pedestal tables, inlaid with pewter and brass, which are in Knole House, and which were probably diplomatic gifts from Louis XIV to the English ambassador John Sackville. He also identified a similarly decorated desk at Boughton House.
Tripods or coffee tables, belonging to the Royal Art Collection or the Paul Getty Museum, have been attributed to Pierre Gole by Gillian Wilson.
His son, Corneille Gole, a Protestant who emigrated after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, worked in 1689 with the London cabinetmaker Gerrit Jensen (nl), of Dutch origin, and supplied marquetry furniture, in the latest Parisian taste, to the British royal court. The Huguenot designer Daniel Marot married Gole's daughter.
Pierre Gole died in Paris on November 27, 1684.
