Offered by Franck Baptiste Provence
Extremely rare console table with four legs in carved and gilded walnut wood.
Rococo style model offering a wide crossbow shape at the front, a trilobed cutout in the corners and a flared offset on the sides.
On the facade, large bands "in crests of roosters" border the scalloped crosspieces on a bottom of trellis with "diamonds and points".
The center decorated with a slightly asymmetrical openwork shell.
The sides sculpted with the same bands and stapled with openwork acanthus scrolls.
With a "concave" curvature, the angles are adorned with a shell terminated by a beak which "unblocks" an acanthus foliage.
A finely carved double hatch “cord” runs along the edges of the feet and side rails.
The feet ending in windings hemmed with a leaf.
Rare 4 cm thick "cataclasite" rock plateau, with corbin beak and cavet, probably from the Peychagnard quarry in La Mure. (Isère)
Good condition, small alterations to the gilding and restoration to the tray.
Work attributable to Jean François Hache in Grenoble around 1765-1770.
Dimensions: Height: 86 cm; Width: 159 cm; Depth: 72 cm
* Cataclasite:
Despite a luminous polishing, the "plateau" that we present is not a marble, but a "cataclasite".
This type of cohesive rock is found almost exclusively in the great Alpine and Pyrenean massifs.
First, major tectonic movements "exploded" the original rock (here a gray limestone) creating a large breach.
Over the centuries, the primary rock, fractured into small angular pieces, has been re-cemented by water rich in dissolved limestone.
Geodes of "crystals" appeared in the cavities and joined over time to fill this gap.
The variations in white tones in the calcite are clearly visible, with on the right the final filling process by these geodes, which offers us the relative transparency of “fresh” solidified crystals.
We would like to thank Mr Maurice Sechier for his valuable information on Laffrey limestone from the quarries of La Mure.
For its analysis, namely a use under the old regime of a limestone without calcite (white line) for the construction and a use of a striated limestone by the Hache cabinetmakers, more decorative but considered too fragile for construction.
His hypothesis on extracting an inverted "vein" dominated by white calcite was correct.
We would like to thank Professor Pierre Thomas from the Geology Laboratory of the ENS de Lyon, for having described to us, with a supporting photo, the entire process of formation of this atypical rock.
Criteria for attribution to Jean François Hache:
-Cataclasite: The rock of our console is particularly rare and to our knowledge, it is only present on furniture by Jean François Hache.
It can be found on the dresser that went on sale in Lyon on March 30, 2014 lot 178, on two dressers present in the book by R. Fontvieille "La dynastie des Hache", on three dressers (N ° 132 page 277, N ° 134 page 281, N ° 145 page 295 of the book by Pierre and Françoise Rouge “le Génie des Haches”, published by Faton), as well as on a secretary sold in Troyes, Boisseau Pommez study on 01/27/18.
This luxurious production forms a coherent corpus of pieces produced by J.F Hache in the years 1760/70.
With its "rock garden calm", our console corresponds perfectly to this period which marks the end of a baroque considered too exuberant.
It is interesting to note that the nature of the moldings and the thickness of our top are identical to that of the dresser sold in Lyon.
-The shape of the plate, with a crossbow curve, a trilobed cutout and a lateral offset is characteristic of the J F. Hache plates.
-The decor, rockery and depth of the sculpture correspond perfectly to the master's productions.
The "bands" start at the angles, form a "bridge" and are clipped together with a small sheet with three registers.
Other peculiarities such as the cords, the concave corner sheet ending in a spout or the "diamond and dot" trellis bottom are specific to the works of Jean François Hache.
These different elements can be seen on the tables published in the book Le Génie des Haches (N ° 204 page 392, N ° 205 page 393, N ° 207 page 395) or on the console sold on 01/19/19 Prunier in Louviers.
The feet are typical of the Dauphiné, (read description Console table N ° 205 page 393), we find them on our console and on the console table sold in Paris, Binoche and Giquello, 10/06/2011, lot 108.
They are an adaptation of the "pastille feet" found on small tables but which are impossible to implement on large consoles.
