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Lot Essay
The prototype for this sophisticated console may very well be the one designed and carved circa 1713 by Jules Degoullons (1671-1737) and supplied to Charles-Henri II de Malon de Bercy. That console was for the grand cabinet in the Château de Bercy and is now in the collections of the Louvre (B. Pallot, Furniture Collections in the Louvre, Dijon, 1993, vol. 2, no. 7, pp. 40-41). Degoullons was one of the partners of the Société des Batiments du Roi and he and his associates, André and Mathieu Legoupil, Marin Bellan and Pierre Taupin, were commissioned to supply much of the carved paneling and related furniture during the renovations of Château de Bercy from 1712-1714.
One of the most truly remarkable aspects of the de Bercy console is that its form and decoration presage the more curving, naturalistic style that would become associated with the Règence period of the 1720s and 1730's. Although both consoles share similarities, this console is also closely related to a design by Mathieu Legoupil published in B. Pons, de Paris à Versailles, 1699-1736, Strasbourg, 1986, fig. 375 in the beasts at the tops of the legs and profile of the legs.
Related consoles include one from the Collection of Hubert de Givenchy, sold at Christie's, Monaco, 4 December 1993, lot 83. A pair of consoles formerly in the Collection of Winston Guest, which have similar fantastic creatures at the tops of the legs, and pronounced concave central element of the frieze and exaggerated profile of the legs were sold in French & Company, Christie's, New York, 24 November 1998, lot 28. Another pair was sold from the collection of Joan Toor Cummings at Christie's, New York, 21 May 1996, lot 223.
One of the most truly remarkable aspects of the de Bercy console is that its form and decoration presage the more curving, naturalistic style that would become associated with the Règence period of the 1720s and 1730's. Although both consoles share similarities, this console is also closely related to a design by Mathieu Legoupil published in B. Pons, de Paris à Versailles, 1699-1736, Strasbourg, 1986, fig. 375 in the beasts at the tops of the legs and profile of the legs.
Related consoles include one from the Collection of Hubert de Givenchy, sold at Christie's, Monaco, 4 December 1993, lot 83. A pair of consoles formerly in the Collection of Winston Guest, which have similar fantastic creatures at the tops of the legs, and pronounced concave central element of the frieze and exaggerated profile of the legs were sold in French & Company, Christie's, New York, 24 November 1998, lot 28. Another pair was sold from the collection of Joan Toor Cummings at Christie's, New York, 21 May 1996, lot 223.