Offered by Franck Baptiste Paris
A rare wall console in finely carved and lacquered oak wood.
Curved model on all sides, in plan as in elevation.
The heavily scalloped and deeply molded front cross member.
It is centered in a shell encircled in an openwork reserve in the shape of a facing "C" underlined by an acanthus rinceau.
The two "whip" uprights are interwoven with acanthus, they end in windings.
Acting as a spacer, a large and exuberant asymmetric inverted and finely ribbed acanthus leaf adorns the junction of the two legs.
The reserve formed by the high cross member, the uprights and the spacer forms a heart.
The sides with strong rear deposits, scalloped, molded, updated and finished with a half-shell.
Massive oak.
Perfect state of conservation; original lacquer "Trianon gray"
Thick original white marble top scoured from a cavet and molded with a double corbin beak.
I.LALBERTAUT stamp on the two heads of the uprights.
Parisian work from the Louis XV period circa 1750 by the master sculptor Jacques Lalbertaut * probably under the direction of the architect Pierre Contant d´Ivry. (1698-1777)
Dimensions:
Width: 93 cm; Height: 53 cm; Depth: 43 cm
Lalbertaut stamped consoles:
-Pendant console, Christie’s New York sale October 19, 2007, lot 259; $ 20,000
-Pair of consoles, Mrs Biddle collection, Charpentier gallery sale December 15, 1959
-Pair of consoles, Fraysse et associés sale, March 15, 2017, lot 88
Jean Baptiste Lalbertaut master carpenter and Jacques Lalbertaut master sculptor.
* The mysterious I.LALBERTAUT stamp was first found in 1959 on a pair of consoles from the New York collection of Mrs Biddle and presented for sale at the Charpentier gallery. (Photo)
The catalog record explains that it is probably the sculptor "Bertaut" mentioned in the archives of the king's buildings.
Pierre Kjellberg repeats this information in his notice devoted to this stamp on page 513 of his book "Le Mobilier français du XVIII ème siécle".
We now know that this mark refers to two brothers, Jean Baptiste mentioned in the notarial archives of Paris as a carpenter and Jacques Lalbertaut as a sculptor in 1731 and then a master sculptor in 1737.
The latter come from a large family of sculptors: "the Martins".
Indeed they are the grandsons of Jean Martin, engineer of King Louis XIV, the nephews of the famous sculptor of the buildings of King Denis Martin, whose sister Catherine married Father Lalbertaut.
They are at the same time the first cousins ??of the painters of King Pierre Denis Martin "said the young" (1643-1742) and Jean Baptiste Martin "said battles" (1659-1735).
Finally, Jacques maintained close ties with the master sculptor Jean Baptiste Pitoin, whose son Quentin-Claude would become one of the chasers and founders of the crown furniture repository.
It is obvious that with their family ties, the two brothers who had settled in rue des Augustins in Paris worked extensively for the buildings of the kings, one taking care of the frames, the other of the sculpture in accordance with the rules in force.
The archives, fragmented, tell us that these latter, called in turn Bertaut or Lalbertaut worked in particular for the castle of Kremlin Bicêtre or for the Saint Benoit cloister in Paris.
It is important to remember that under the old regime phonetics took precedence over spelling until Napoleon's decision to definitively fix the spelling of proper names.
After 1758, the archives no longer make any mention of the two brothers.
Although their period of activity is estimated to be between the years 1730 and 1758, very few stamped consoles are known. (six to date).
This fact is probably explained by the obligation to stamp which actually came into effect in 1751, which would explain why only the last part of their production was stamped.
This hypothesis is reinforced by the fact that the known consoles have a symmetrical rococo decoration characteristic of the drawings of the architect Pierre Contant d 'Ivry of the years 1755.
Bibliography:
Genealogy tree of the Martin family in FRANÇOIS SOUCHAL's book “French Scluptor of the 17th and 18th centuries” Vol III. (Photo)
Our opinion :
Stamped consoles are uncommon and often date from the reign of Louis XVI, our Louis XV period and hanging wall lamp is extremely rare.
With its solid oak wood and its original lacquer, this console offers us particularly nervous sculptural qualities while remaining very fine.
The detail is present even in the high quality cutting of the marble moldings.
With its asymmetrical acanthus, our console is slightly older than other known models and probably dates from the very early years of the 1750s.
