Offered by Franck Baptiste Paris
Model of half-moon shape with a Greek-style opening. The crosspiece is finely openworked with foliage scrolls in two rectangular reserves separated by a connecting dice decorated with an unfurled acanthus. It rests on a central foot consisting of a scroll decorated with friezes of hearts and interlacing and ended by a foot in lion's paw hemmed with an acanthus.
Original griotte de Campan marble top with a frieze of pearls in gilt bronze.
Beautiful original gilding in the leaf with double patina matt and shiny (small retouches of use).
Exceptional quality of sculpture.
Parisian work of the Louis the XVIth period around 1780 after a design by Richard de Lalonde*.
Dimensions :
Height : 89 cm ; width : 86 cm ; depth : 41 cm.
*Richard de Lalonde was a French designer and ornamentalist active in Paris at the end of the reign of Louis the XVIth. He made numerous neoclassical drawings of furniture and goldsmith's objects that were collected in several books. Several engravings published in his Cinquième cahier de tables et consoles, notably a table project and projects for sconce consoles (see photos), are extremely close to our model.
A very good example is a pair of consoles sold at Christie's London on December 12th, 2002, lot 30, and commissioned by the architect Claude-Antoine Colombot on November 12, 1789 for the hotel of François-Gabriel Chappuis de Rosières, in Besançon.
As on our console and the drawings by Lalonde, we find the same scrolled legs ending in acanthus-edged claw feet and the same decoration of stretched heart-shaped stripes and friezes of interlacing.
Our opinion :
The console we present comes from the Hôtel de Jarnac in Paris where it was probably originally located. The date of construction of the building (1784) corresponds perfectly to the drawings of Richard de Lalonde and other consoles attributable to him. We can therefore date it to the years 1785-90. The purity and complexity of the neoclassical design of our ornamentalist is combined with the perfect execution of the master carver who worked in a particularly hard oak wood.
Because of stylistic similarities with the consoles made by Georges and Henri Jacob, we can assume that they worked extensively from de Lalonde's drawings.
Our console is presented in a perfect state of conservation, in its original gilding and with its marble of the period encircled with a frieze of bronze pearls. It is a very nice example of the last productions of the end of the Ancien Régime.
