Louis XV Period Four-Legged Console in Gilt Carved Oak with Hunting Scene

A finely carved and gilt oak console table resting on four cabriole legs adorned with appliques, floral garlands, and inverted curvature, joined by a stretcher intricately carved in high relief with a hunting scene depicting a hound seizing a game bird.
The pierced serpentine apron features a central cartouche framing two finely modelled doves face to face, set amidst clouds, flowers and scrolling foliage.
The console is topped with a beautifully moulded “vert de mer” marble slab with a corbin beak edge.

Dimensions:
• Height: 80.5 cm
• Width: 108 cm
• Depth: 50 cm

Restorations, particularly to the gilding.

The craftsmanship of this console is outstanding, both in the quality of its carving and materials, and in the rarity of its decorative subject.

The four-legged construction is particularly unusual for a wall-mounted console, indicating a highly sophisticated workshop production and a commission of great prestige.

The carving displays exceptional attention to detail. The legs are fully pierced to echo the openwork apron — a rare feature requiring advanced technical mastery in furniture design. This construction enhances the fluidity of the lines, the organic nature of the ornamentation, and adds a sense of rhythm and tension to the piece.

The apron centres on a richly sculpted cartouche symbolising union or love, framed by wings and floral scrolls on the serpentine sides.
The lower stretcher is conceived as a sculptural composition in the round: beneath a stylised woodland canopy, a hunting dog pins down a game bird — likely a pheasant — by the leg in a vivid and naturalistic gesture. This lively hunting scene recalls the decorative language of aristocratic hunting lodges and salons of the period, and particularly the work of Jean-Baptiste Oudry.

The console is surmounted by a slab of “vert de mer” marble, a rare and luxurious stone. Quarried in the Alps, this marble was used for the window frames of the Château de Versailles, the facing panels of the Pont de la Concorde, the pillars of the church of Saint-Sulpice, and the columns of Florence Cathedral. Its prestigious reputation also made it a model for painted marble imitations in the 19th century.

This console brings together the stylistic hallmarks of the Louis XV period at its most expressive. It stands out by virtue of its rare quadripod structure — lending it both autonomy and monumentality — its masterful sculptural work conceived in the round, and its exceptionally fine marble.
Such an unusual configuration suggests a ceremonial piece, likely created for a grand salon or a noble hunting pavilion.