Offered by Franck Baptiste Paris
Rare table in gilded oak wood.
Rectangular model with four legs connected by a spacer.
The crosspieces slightly fretted and finely carved with ironwork valance and flowers.
The openwork front of two scrolls of acanthus centered with a large head of a grimacing faun who wears a crown of feathers.
The uprights are in the form of a console and have acanthus leaf spandrels and scrollwork in the upper part which spring from the upper windings and are connected to the central crosspiece.
The middle part of the uprights features gadroon frieze edges and ends with dolphin-shaped feet.
The four legs are connected by volutes extended by dolphins which come to rest on a central mound.
The entire console is finely engraved in the finishes of a diamond latticework.
Very good state of preservation, original gilding.
Thick original tray in Sarrancolin marble veneer molded with a corbin beak and underlined with a cavetto.
Work attributable to the sculpture workshop of the society for the buildings of the king, Paris around 1720-1730.
Dimensions:
Width: 130cm; Height: 79cm; Depth: 65cm.
Our opinion :
The exceptional console that we present features a very rich and very expressive sculpture that allows us to appreciate the irony of the grimacing fauna or the playful character of the marine mammal.
The slightest detail is accurately rendered by considerable repair work. Every square inch of the console is intricately etched in the finish, whether it's the dolphin's scales, the flower petals, the veins of the feathers, or just the lattice bottoms.
The excellent state of conservation, due to a very hard oak wood with tight grains, is the central element that allows us to admire our console in a state close to that of origin.
All of these elements are characteristic of the productions of the sculpture workshop of the company for the king's buildings, which was founded in 1699 by the sculptors Jules Degoullons, Marin Bellan, Pierre Taupin and André Legoupil.
The latter is also the author of a collection, "Consoles and mascarons for frame borders, wall brackets and table legs", whose mask designs are extremely close to that of our fauna.
Until 1736 and the death of the last of them, the company will work on the realization of consoles and woodwork for official buildings, such as the small cabinet of the king in Versailles, the menagerie of Trianon, or for the big dolphin at the castle of Meudon.
It is interesting to note that under the Ancien Régime, the dolphin iconography found on our console refers to the allegory of the Crown Prince.
The presence of a healthy heir was the basis of stability for the monarchy and for the people. to the point that his image served as a lucky charm.
The end of the Louis XIV period will be quite turbulent with the respective deaths of the Grand Dauphin in 1711 and the Petit Dauphin in 1712, their successors, the Dauphins Louis (future Louis XV) and his son Louis of France (1729-1765), aroused both have a lot of hope, to the point that the image of the Dauphin will flourish everywhere, especially in the decorative arts.
It is also very likely that our console was made for an official building erected in their honor.
