Cuban mahogany Gueridon

Louis XVI period, circa 1780
Height 72cm Diameter 85cm

Beautiful pedestal table with tilting top, in solid cuba mahogany. At the end of the 18th century, this type of gueridon made its appearance and quickly became fashionable among the French aristocracy. Used in bedrooms and living rooms to display objects or candelabras, their central foot conferred elegance and lightness. During receptions, they could be used as sideboards or folded to save space.

This gueridon has a very pure line, without any bronze ornaments. Unfortunately, many gueridons of average quality have been enriched with bronzes later, especially in the flutes and feet. The diameter of our pedestal table is larger than average. It is important to know that these pieces of furniture, when they are of good quality, have a solid top in a single plank, carved in the mass to obtain the peripheral overflow forming a "bowl" top. This is the case of this pedestal table; even in the 18th century, to obtain a mahogany board from Cuba with a width of 85cm was exceptional and very expensive.

The quality of the central shaft should be observed; it is of a large section, tapered at the top and slightly bulging. This last detail is important because it is this bulge that avoids an unsightly optical effect. The flutes are deep and executed with great precision.

Without ornamental bronzes, the quality of these pedestal tables rests essentially on the choice of the mahogany used. Here, the mahogany is beautiful, with an extremely fine grain and a "honey" color. The varnish "au tampon" which has just been redone on this pedestal table gave back to the mahogany this smoothness very particular to the Cuban origin which was interrupted from the 19th century.

To better understand what is called "mahogany", here is some interesting information from the internet. It allows us to understand that exotic woods from Africa and Asia were also called "mahogany". The following article presents these woods as having "very similar qualities"; these are physical qualities, as the observation highlights that the aesthetic qualities have nothing to do with it.

"Mahogany refers to a group of tropical trees in the Meliaceae family, whose main characteristic is that the wood is pale pink to red in color, fragrant, durable and easy to work with. The name mahogany designates in the narrow sense of trees of America and the West Indies of the genus Swietenia, first Swietenia mahagoni, then Swietenia macrophylla. It also designates Cedrela odorata exploited in the same regions. But this name has been extended to other related genera whose wood has very similar qualities, including African mahogany of the genus Khaya (and sometimes the genus Entandrophragma), as well as Asian species of the genus Toona"