Offered by Franck Baptiste Provence
Small architect's table called à la Tronchin.*Model opening with a drawer in front which reveals a locker with a removable writing desk and a large compartment serving as an inkwell.
The quarter-round molded top can be tilted using a lectern system and height-adjustable using sliding racks concealed in the legs.
The sliding crosspieces of the solid mahogany lectern are finely cut and openworked.
The set rests on four feet of square sections decorated with moldings and finished with bronze clogs.
Golden green leather with small irons for the top tray and the side zippers.
The lowering of the worktop is ensured by a clever push button system hidden under the crosspiece, and accessible from inside the drawer by opening the writing compartment.
Removable book support in original solid mahogany. Beautiful mahogany with very tight grains, perfect state of conservation, French polish by our workshop.
The underside of the side rail stamped "D.L ANCELLET".*
Very good state of preservation. Parisian work from the Louis XVI period around 1780.Dimensions:
Height: 75.5cm; Width: 86cm; Depth: 59cm
*The Tronchin table appeared during the reign of Louis XVI.
It takes its name from a Geneva doctor Théodore Tronchin (1709-1781) who at the time published works on bone diseases related
to the bad position that one adopts at his work table.
He describes the advantages of creating a tilting and height-adjustable desk table that would keep the back straight and thus avoid any strain and pain, whether working seated or standing.
The innovation of this table with system comes from a mechanism of sliding and adjustable feet by a system of racks which makes it possible to raise the top to the desired height.
*Denis-Louis Ancellet (?-1823) is a cabinetmaker received Master in Paris on December 3, 1766.
Until 1780 his workshop was installed rue de Charenton then he moved rue Saint Nicolas and was adviser to the corporation of carpenters - cabinetmakers of Paris. His production was not exceptional and he worked mainly for various merchants who bought furniture of ordinary quality from him. In 1791, when Louis XVI restored the Château de Saint Cloud to receive the Court there, he received from the Garde-Meuble a large order of around sixty pieces. His favorite production was backgammon tables, but he produced a large number of pieces of furniture, consoles, bouillotte tables, flat and cylinder desks, secretaries, bookcases, in the Louis XVI style, made of mahogany, most often adorned with copper rods. He rarely practiced marquetry. His stamp was sometimes associated with that, prestigious, of Adam Weisweiller, which would prove that the two cabinetmakers were able to work together. Denis Louis Ancellet died in 1823. His son François succeeded him under the Empire.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
18th Century French Furniture - Pierre Kjellberg - Les Editions de l'Amateur - 2008
The cabinetmakers of the 18th century - Count François de Salverte - Les éditions d'Art et d'Histoire - 1934
The art and manner of French master cabinetmakers in the 18th century - Jean Nicolay - Pygmalion edition - 1976
