TRANSFORMED IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY FROM A LARGER, LATE LOUIS XVI CONSOLE TABLE RE-USING THE ORIGINAL CARCASE AND MOUNTS, ONE STAMPED TWICE WASSMUS, ONE STAMP PARTIALLY OBLITERATED

WASSMUS FRERES AND THE TRANSFORMATION FROM A SINGLE TABLE

This pair of tables results from the transformation by Wassmus Frères during the 19th century from one much larger late Louis XVI side table. The original table was almost certainly of the same model and also probably similar size to the one from the collection of the Duc de Morny, sold by Christie's London, 12 June 1997, lot 50. Wassmus re-used four of the original eight legs and four of the original eight lion head mounts for each of these two console tables. The frieze mounts were also taken from the original console and re-used with the addition of the rooster to the front friezes to disguise the cuts.

The firm of Wassmus Frères comprised two brothers of German descent, Jean-Henri-Chrétien (d. circa 1860) and Jean-Henri-Christophe, and the latter's son, Henri-Léonard. The firm was established during the Empire period and remained active through the end of the Second Empire. Unfortunately, it is not really possible to identify the work of one of the family from another. (See D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Mobilier Français du XIXe siècle , Paris, 1984, p. 620). p. 620). As was true for so many 19th century makers, their production consisted of both new pieces in revivalist styles, and also in the adaptation of earlier pieces. The firm distinguished itself by exhibiting at the Exposition des Produits de l'Industrie Française of 1844, and the Universal Expositions of 1855 and 1867, and by becoming 'fournisseurs de la Couronne' during the Second Empire, delivering furniture for the various royal palaces such as the Tuileries, and Saint Cloud.

THE DUC DE MORNY TABLE
The original form of the table before its transformation into the present pair is almost certainly of the same proportions and model to the table owned by the duc de Morny (1811-1865) sold from the collection of a Nobleman, Christie's London, 12 June 1997, lot 50, which is extremely similar in its overall design and mounts to the current pair. Possibly supplied by the marchand-mercier François Godon, the table may have been commissioned by Auguste-Charles-Joseph, comte de Flahaut de la Billarderie (1785-1867) or his lover Queen Hortense, the wife of Louis Napoléon, King of Holland (d. 1846). Subsequently inherited by their son, the duc de Morny, half-brother of the future Emperor Napoleon III, the table was placed in the duc's appartements at the hôtel de Lassay, Paris (now the residence of the president of the National Assembly). First recorded in the inventory taken of the hôtel following the duc's death in 1865, it was described as:

'1090...Une très grande et belle console de style Louis XVI en bois noir et bronze doré d'or mat, elle repose sur huit pieds à canneaux en spirale avec entrejambe supportant une branche de laurier, un caducée et une trompette en bronze dorée. La frise est ornée de bas reliefs avec entre-deux à têtes de lions tenant des couronnes de fleurs dans leur gueules. Dessus en marbre griotte d'Italie ave bordure en marbre vert d'Egypte'


DUGUERS DE MONTROSIER (1756-1806) AND THE DESIGN FOR THE TABLE

The distinctive and monumental form of these tables and no doubt of the original larger table are related to the designs of Pierre-Louis-Arnulphe Duguers de Montrosier. In 1799, Duguers' wife Anne-Elisabeth Lair borrowed the enormous sum of 25,000 francs from M. Henrion to enable her husband to 'employer à leurs affaires et dont ils sont contents'-and thus launching his career as an ébéniste, joining forces shortly thereafter with the marchand-ébéniste Hutin of the Boulevard des Italiens. Specializing in furniture of exceptional design 'très chargés de bronzes et lourdes de forme', his career was tragically cut short by his early death in 1806. His widow carried on his trade, and at the Exposition des Produits de l'Industrie Française in 1806, exhibited a monument to Fredrick the Great, as well as publishing a recueil in which were reproduced designs for 'les meubles, pendules, et candélabres, composés et exécutés par L. DUGUERS', featuring several of Dugueu's most lavish furniture designs. Bound by a loan of 100,000 francs entered into by her husband shortly before his death and unable either to escape this debt or to sell her husband's furniture, after protracted negotiations with the Garde-Meuble Impérial that lasted until 1812, Madame Duguers was reluctantly forced to cede certain pieces in settlement of this debt. Among the ceded items was 'une console très riche de six pieds de long sur huit colonnes torses, table de marbre, chapiteaux de bronze, 18 000 F which could correspond to this pair of tables in their original form.

THE ORMOLU MOUNTS AND ATTRIBUTION TO THOMIRE
Though certain parallels exist in the work of Weisweiller, the primary ébéniste of the tables remains unknown, the mounts can be attributed to Pierre Philippe Thomire (maître-doreur in 1765). A commode by Guillaume Benneman supplied in 1788 for the chambre à coucher du Roi at the Château de Saint Cloud, now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles displays frieze mounts in a very similar vein, cast by Forestier and Badin, chased by Thomire and gilt by André Galle (G. Wilson, Summary Catalogue of European Decorative Arts in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2001, p. 10, no. 16).