A Louis XVI mahogany table de salon, stamped by Canabas 18th century

Small Louis XVI period coffee table in mahogany and Cuban pommelé mahogany veneer stamped: Canabas and struck with the Paris jurande JME; with an ellipsoidal plan, it opens on the front with a drawer with a concealed crosspiece. This is arranged as a writing desk for love notes, available in two mobile shelves, with a frame covered in black morocco for one and an articulated window concealing an inkwell and powder compact in polished brass for the other. Our table rests on a base divided into two distinct parts: the lower one composed of four bare, tapered and pinched columns at their tops supporting a crotch shelf with a contour encircled on three of its faces with a baguette; each ending in a bronze roller shoe. The second is extended in the upper part by four ovoid balusters ringed at each of its ends, nested in the connecting dice of the belt. The whole is topped with a sheet of lightly veined white Carrara marble surrounded by an openwork gallery. Beautiful chiseled bronze ornamentation such as a pearl medallion lock entrance decorated with a ribboned bow, roller shoes and pearl key head, openwork in its center with a fleur-de-lys. The Canabas stamp and the Paris JME jurande are struck twice, under the belt for one and under the crotch shelf for the other. Dimensions: Height 76.3cm - Width 56.7cm) - Depth 41.3cm. Joseph Gengenbach known as Canabas (1715-1797) - mastery obtained on April 1, 1766. Joseph Canabas (1712-1797) is among the most important Parisian cabinetmakers of the second half of the 18th century and is considered the great master of small mahogany furniture. Of German origin, he came to settle in Paris probably at the end of the 1730s or at the beginning of the following decade, and married in 1745. He worked for a long time as a privileged worker on rue de Charonne, becoming one of the subcontractors of Jean-François Oeben and Pierre Migeon. After becoming a master in April 1766, he set up his workshop on the Grande Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine and quickly developed his business by building up a wealthy private clientele and collaborating with a few major merchants such as Bonnemain Jeune and the Presle brothers. In 1769, at the time of his wife's death, the inventory after his death mentions numerous screens, tables of all types and pedestal tables in mahogany wood; while in 1797 the sale organized after the cabinetmaker's death testifies to the prosperity of the workshop despite the revolutionary troubles; thus were described "secretaries, chests of drawers, pedestal tables, desks, sliding and sliding tables, cylinder bedside tables, consoles, men's and women's toilets, chiffonniers, office chairs and other objects, mostly in solid mahogany, decorated with copper in the best taste.