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A PAIR OF LATE LOUIS XV STEEL AND ORMOLU CONSOLES ATTRIBUTED TO PIERRE DEUMIER, AFTER A DESIGN BY VICTOR LOUIS, CIRCA 1765 Each with a serpentine moulded sarrancolin marble top above a flowerhead guilloche frieze centred by a braded female-mask with a vine wreath and hung with ribbon-tied berried laurel garlands, the angles with berried oak-leaf clasps above pierced acanthus-sheathed strapwork supports terminating in rosette paterae and joined by an inswept stretcher centred by a fluted plinth surmounted by a two-handled urn hung with oak-leaf swags issuing acorns, with pinecone finial and acanthus boss, on square-sectioned panelled tapering feet; slight differences in size, the masks to frieze replaced 32 ? in. (74.3 cm.) high; 52 ? in. (133.5 cm.) wide; 20 ? in. (52.5 cm.) deep, the larger 32 in. (73.2 cm.) high; 47 ? in. (120 cm.) wide; 23 ? in. (59.5 cm.) deep, the smaller
Conceived in costly polished steel and gilt-bronze and following an audacious go?t à la grecque design, these superb console tables are part of a small group of circa 1765 related examples including the celebrated console supplied to King Augustus III of Poland. Polished steel was an extremely hard and complex material to work, and furniture made of this material was subsequently very expensive. These costly pieces were conceived by serruriers (locksmith) therefore outside their usual skill and scale, they were considered at the time as a real innovation. David Harris Cohen, who studied a similar model now at the J.P. Getty Museum, Los Angeles, was the first to identify a group of consoles of this type which he attributed to the work of the serrurier Pierre II Deumier, based on his advertisement published in the gazette of L’Avant-coureur, 8 August 1763:
‘Un pied pour porter une table de marbre à double consolles avec volutes en cornes de bélier, enrichie d’avant corps & moulures prises, sur les masses, surmontées d’une frise avec rond entrelassé & rosettes. Le bas est terminé par un vase antique de ronde bosse avec branches de chêne. Les consolles sont garnies de différentes pièces d’ornements, & dans le milieu est une tête de femme co?ffée à l’antique ; des branches de laurier forment guirlande au pourtour’.
In his study, Cohen divided this group to steel examples dating from 18th century and others made in silvered bronze, which date from the 19th century.
Except the Rothschild pair, only two other 18th century consoles in polished steel and gilt-bronze are recorded. They all share the same general striking avant-garde neoclassical design, attributed to the architect Victor Louis (1731-1800):
- one console at the Museum of the State Museum of the Hermitage, St Petersburg (inv. Epr-2736), which is 140 cm. wide. Its design corresponds to two drawings, one by Victor Louis, the other attributed to the ornemaniste and sculptor Jean-Louis Prieur (1759-1795), made in 1766 for the Chambre des Portraits of the Royal palace of Warsaw. The only difference between the Hermitage example and the 1766 designs is the absence of the cypher of its patron King Stanislaw II Augustus (1732-1798).
- the other is at Marble House, Newport, Rhode Island. It was donated, together with a later console of this model, to the Newport Preservation Society, after its purchase in 1957 by Harold S. Vanderbilt from the New York dealers French & Company. The 18th century example has a leaf-and-berry mount in the center of its frieze similar to the Hermitage table.
Based on these mid-18th century consoles, we know six other examples which are in silvered bronze, three of which have been authenticated as second half of late 19th century:
- one console in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu (acc. Num. 88.DF.118), 129,5 cm wide; formerly in the Lopez-Willshaw collection, sold Sotheby’s, Monaco, 23 June 1976, lot 108; subsequently acquired from the British Rail Pension Fund.
- a pair at chateau de Versailles, bequeathed by Consuelo V