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Lot Essay
Etienne Levasseur, maître in 1767.
In reality tric-trac tables were used as occasional tables rather than games tables for the vast majority of the time, even in the 18th Century. Richly-decorated examples of compact dimensions such as the present table are extremely rare and these would have featured prominently in a salon rather than an antechambre or salle de jeu. Levasseur was renowned for his masterful skill of restoring Louis XIV Boulle marquetry furniture and producing 'new' furniture incorporating earlier Boulle marquetry. The present table is executed in mahogany and embellished with beautifully-chased mounts to the frieze and mille-raie panels to the legs, and is typical of the sophisticated style of Levasseur's pieces supplied to the Garde-Meuble in the 1780s. This includes a writing-table and a pair corner-cupboards, both in mahogany and enriched with bejewelled mounts, supplied to Mesdames, the aunts of Louis XVI, at Chateau de Bellevue. The latter were delivered by the marchand-mercier Darnault in 1783, with whom Levasseur often collaborated (P. Arizzoli-Clementel, Versailles, Furniture of the Royal Palace , Dijon, 2002, vol. II, pp. 56-59, nos. 11-12).
Levasseur's beautifully made tric-trac tables clearly inspired other cabinet-makers and a virtually identical example stamped by Jean Potarange, was sold from the collection of Baron Philippe de Rothschild, Tajan, Paris, 29-30 November 1976, lot 243.
In reality tric-trac tables were used as occasional tables rather than games tables for the vast majority of the time, even in the 18th Century. Richly-decorated examples of compact dimensions such as the present table are extremely rare and these would have featured prominently in a salon rather than an antechambre or salle de jeu. Levasseur was renowned for his masterful skill of restoring Louis XIV Boulle marquetry furniture and producing 'new' furniture incorporating earlier Boulle marquetry. The present table is executed in mahogany and embellished with beautifully-chased mounts to the frieze and mille-raie panels to the legs, and is typical of the sophisticated style of Levasseur's pieces supplied to the Garde-Meuble in the 1780s. This includes a writing-table and a pair corner-cupboards, both in mahogany and enriched with bejewelled mounts, supplied to Mesdames, the aunts of Louis XVI, at Chateau de Bellevue. The latter were delivered by the marchand-mercier Darnault in 1783, with whom Levasseur often collaborated (P. Arizzoli-Clementel, Versailles, Furniture of the Royal Palace , Dijon, 2002, vol. II, pp. 56-59, nos. 11-12).
Levasseur's beautifully made tric-trac tables clearly inspired other cabinet-makers and a virtually identical example stamped by Jean Potarange, was sold from the collection of Baron Philippe de Rothschild, Tajan, Paris, 29-30 November 1976, lot 243.