Console with Egyptian figures in sheath

France, Consulat period, around 1800.
Framed in oak ; mahogany and mahogany veneer ; black painted wood ; chiseled and gilded bronze ; veines white marble.

A sumptuous testimony to the quintessence of Parisian know-how in cabinetmaking at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century, this rectangular console presents a rectilinear belt decorated in its center with a solar mask of the god Apollo in chiseled and gilded bronze flanked by two openwork palmettes enhanced with "double base scrolls", all in chiseled and gilded bronze. Flower buds in the center of a rosette, itself surrounded by a molded ring, the whole also in gilded bronze, are placed in the corners.
The console rests on two front sheaths and two rear pilasters in mahogany veneer, sheaths narrowing towards the bottom surmounted by busts of Egyptian women with crossed hair on the neck topped with an Egyptian nemes in bronzed wood, a characteristic testifying to the quality furniture since most of these consoles have heads or busts in gilded or patinated bronze. They rest on human feet also in lacquered wood, an additional feature of rarity, the latter often being replaced by simple bases in bronze or wood. The main face of the sheaths is decorated with the same ornamental themes of palmettes in gilded bronze previously described. A spacer shelf in mahogany veneer, meeting the dimensions of the belt limited by the lateral supports, accommodates the four feet, drawing a centered semi-circle through a play of marquetry with the rear strip. The whole rests on front legs with lion's claws placed facing forward, an element once again highlighting the high quality brought to the creation of our console since a majority of Consulat style furniture did not have a base, the crotch for the consoles serving in effect as a base. Only some of the secrétaires or commodes retained legs. A top of veined white marble crowns it all.

The first examples of consoles with human figures in sheaths are found among the pair of luxurious consoles attributed to Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843), sold in 1799 to the Tsar of Russia Paul I (1754-1801) by the merchands-merciers Guillaume Culot and Barthélémy Defarge and today preserved in Saint Petersburg, one in the Hermitage Museum, the other in the Pavlovsk Palace.
These figures, as well as those present on our console, can be compared, without emanating directly, to those which are found at the corners of the pair of commodes made in 1787 by Guillaume Benneman (1750-1811, master in 1785) under the direction by Jean Hauré for the bedroom of Mme Thierry de Ville d'Avray at the Hôtel du Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, one of which is preserved today at the Louvre Museum (inv. OA 5504).
However, it was for a completely different reason that these commodes became a landmark : the figures of women in sheaths placed at the front corners have the particularity of including, compared to those previously existing on furniture by Joubert, Œben or Riesener, human feet which emerge from the sheath. This is also the case for our furniture currently described.

The inspiration for ancient Egypt in the console table appeared occasionally at the end of the Louis XVI period in the years 1785-1790, a real gestation period. The consoles of the gallery of large furniture at the Hôtel du Garde-Meuble de la Couronne decorated with large Egyptian heads, made in 1787 by Étienne Trompette and François-Charles Buteux undoubtedly based on the designs of Jean-Démosthène Dugourc (1749 -1825), responsible for the hotel's decoration projects as a designer, and today presented at the Château de Fontainebleau, are the perfect illustration of this. The use of Egyptian motifs in furniture therefore did not wait for Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt to appear.
The other new development of these years was the increasingly frequent replacement of inlaid surfaces with plain veneers, notably mahogany, and enhanced with bronze. This led to a real change in taste, inspired by merchants like Dominique Daguerre (c. 1740-1796) who thus developed Anglomania by introducing English furniture into France, a phenomenon accentuated by the provisions of the free trade treaty of 1786.

LITERATURE : Jean-Pierre Samoyault, Mobilier français Consulat et Empire, Paris, Gourcuff Gradenigo, 2009.

Very good general condition, usual restorations and maintenance.